Deputy Leader of Brent Labour Group protests to the Labour NEC over its ruling that no formal or informal agreement should be made with the Green Party

Cllr Gwen Grahl, newly elected deputy leader of Brent Labour Group  posted the following on Twitter earlier this evening, writing in a personal capacity.

I have today written to Labour’s NEC regarding advice received on forming an administration at Brent Council. Labour Groups should be trusted to make political decisions in the best interest of their residents.

 

Following the post Jake Rubin, Brent Cabinet Member for Communities, Children's Services, Employment and Climate Action tweeted his support:

I agree with this - I simply cannot understand why Labour’s NEC prevented Brent Labour Group from formal or informal agreements with the Green group in Brent, when the consequences for this were obvious

Labour Bosses Sack Eight Sitting BAME Brent Councillors for Supporting Palestine and Close in on Council Leader Muhammed Butt

Brent Anti-racism Charter 2022

Exclusive insight from a former Brent Labour Party member:

Labour's Ruling Body (National Executive Committee) have imposed all Labour council candidates in Brent without any say from thousands of local party members or long serving MPs.

This includes barring eight sitting BAME Councillors, including Labour’s Chief Whip Cllr Iman Ahmadi Moghaddam and Cabinet Member Cllr Harbi Farah from standing in the May 2026 council election.

All deselected councillors signed a statement calling for a ceasefire in Gaza in October 2023, infuriating Starmer loyalists. This is thought to be the primary motive for their deselection. 

White councillors who also signed the same statement survived the purge, in a move that will undoubtedly raise some difficult questions for Labour on the doorstep amongst Brent’s diverse communities. 

⁠The panel that decided Labour’s candidate list was chaired by Starmerite and corporate lobbyist Abdi Duale, who also carried out most of the interviews that led to the Councillors being deselected.

London Labour Party Executive member and Kingsbury Councillor Shama Tatler did not stand [she said so in Twitter statement]. She was a vocal supporter of the move to take decision making out of the hands of Labour members, and is rumoured to have been actively involved in deciding the final list of candidates. Cllr Tatler was also involved in the running of a similar process in Leicester in 2023, which deselected 19 Muslim and Hindu Councillors. 

New Starmerite MP, Georgia Gould, imposed by the national party in 2024, is rumoured to have taken time out of her busy government ministerial role to personally intervene to encourage the purge and replace sitting Councillors with her Starmerite allies. 

This comes four days after Labour's catastrophic defeat in the West Hampstead ward by-election in neighbouring Camden Council. A similar 23-point swing in Brent in 2026 would see councillors being lost in almost every single Labour-held ward. The recent upheaval in Brent Labour will undoubtedly increase this likelihood, leading to internal fears that Labour could lose control of Brent’s administration.

This appears to be the first step in removing council leader Muhammed Butt, motivated by Starmerite outrage over his non-compliance, especially his decision to allow Brent council to set up a ‘twinning arrangement’ with Nablus, a town in Palestine.

EDITOR'S NOTE - The deselected individuals remain as Brent councillors until the May 2026 Local Election unless they resign.