Cllr Ihtesham Afzal speaking at a Brent Council meeting
Clr Ihtesham Afzal, a Wembley Hill ward councillor has written to the Brent CEO and the Labour Group to inform them that he has resigned from the Labour Group with immediate effect and joined Your Party. Cllr Afzal was not standing for Labour in Brent in the May 7th local election.
The councillor was in the forefront of the campaign to link Brent with Nablus in the West Bank and his criticism of the Labour Government's policy on Palestine is well known.
In a message to the Labour Group the sender says s/he takes no pleasure in sharing the news and remarks how deeply disappointing it is to lose a colleague.
The party switch comes after the defection of five Labour councillors to the Green Party. All are now standing under the Green banner in May and are busy campaiging.
The sender tells the Group that they must persuade the electorate that they should continue to believe in Brent under a strong, stable and ambitious Labour leadership and not be diverted from their campaign.
Brent Your Party commented:
Brent Your Party welcomes Councillor Afzal as a member. Under Labour Brent is officially the worst housing authority in Britain with a complete disregard to local housing need.
The fact that good former Labour councillors have been excluded from Labour for standing up for Palestine is a disgrace. Neither the racists of Reform and the Tories have any solution to the failure of Brent Labour.
Your Party will always stand with the Palestinian people and oppose Labour cuts.
20 comments:
No one will miss him - he did less than 120 pieces of casework in 4 years. Lazy, inept and won’t be missed.
oh dear, another very annoyed Labour Councillor. Just wait till you lose your seat, you will be really annoyed then
What are you talking about? This is a serious hit for Brent Labour. Not spin, not drama. Just real damage.
Losing Cllr Ihtesham Afzal makes them look weak. Simple as that. He wasn’t just another councillor. He was one of the few people who actually gave them credibility on issues people care about. Palestine, fairness, speaking up. He made them look like they stood for something.
Now he’s gone, and it sends a message. Loud.
It says the people with backbone don’t feel they can stay. It says if you speak too strongly, you’re out of place. That’s not a good look for a party that bangs on about values.
Add that to others leaving already and it starts to look like Brent Labour is coming apart a bit. Car crash.
Worse, for them, and positive for all of us in Brent… Your Party now have a foothold. Cllr Butt even attended momentum and now we have a real old school Labour in the building.
More posturing from Comrade Afzal. Why did he wait so long? Did he not move out of Brent ages ago? Labour are a shambles not because of so called defection but because they did not replace force him to resign earlier.
Hello out of touch - he was not standing in the election so nothing to lose!
Ihtesham is a model of what a councillor should be , hard working and a listener who stood up for all those thousands in Brent who opposed the Israeli genocide in Gaza . Labour should be ashamed that so many good councillors have been forced out , leaving only the landlords and those who do nothing but collect their Council salaries on the Labour benches .
The wheels are certainly coming off Brent Labour. Hopefully the Council election on 7th May will complete the job.
ClIr Ihtesham Afzal - a respectful, hardworking man of integrity and conscience will always be supported in our community!
Labour loses a hard working councillor both in Preston ward prior to the boundary changes and then in Wembley Hill. Sadly the London Regional Labour Party will see this as a win just as they did when they deselected eight sitting councillors. Their actions will without doubt lead to significant losses in the elections with hard working councillors that continue to embrace Labour values losing their seats in the backlash against Labour locally and nationally. It seems ironic that the local engineer of these actions no longer has to worry about this backlash or put in the hard work of winning the votes of the local electorate as she will be sitting very comfortably in the unelected House of Lords. Nice work if you can get it! I think it’s fair to say that residents will have fonder memories of Ihtesham than they will for Tower Blocks Tatler.
Whilst Cllr. Ihtesham was very good at standing up for the people of Palestine which is admirable, however he was voted in as a Labour Cllr to represent Wembley Hill Ward Residents for which he did nothing for, having sent numerous emails he never responded to one, and as far as I am aware he moved from the borough.
This pleases me. Labour is finished.
The wheels on the bus fall off off off
Off off off
Off off off
The wheels on the bus fall off off off
Old man butt’s labour
Please see here what a local councillor should do - helping local people with LOCAL issues:
Local Government Association https://share.google/wyvh5zGAJF25GebKV
For national or international issues contact your MP - Barry Gardiner or Dawn Butler!!!
Wheres your Afzal gone,
wheres your Afzal gone!
I’m sorry we need councillors who will spend time sticking up for local issues. Like highways and housing not international issues which are not the remit of LOCAL government. When people went to the last local elections they voted on LOCAL issues. Brent labour councillors appear to have a habit of being elected for one thing and doing something different once in power.
Rubbish never did a thing for wembley hill
And she's raking in £390 per day - the cost to us for her demolishing thousands of truly affordable homes in Brent
Most Labour Councillors don't do anything LOL
Was a councillor for Preston Ward where I live and never did or said anything to support issues raised by residents such as the abysmal library development or the state of Preston Park. His campaign for Gaza only highlighted the contempt he had for the concerns of his constituents.
Editor can we have an interview with Cllr Ihtesham Afzal
Post a Comment