One of the accusations regularly chucked the way of Newham mayor Sir Robin Wales is that he buys off the support of his Labour colleagues by giving them all paid jobs.
In Tower Hamlets, there are 23 Labour councillors (out of 45 in total), so they control the town hall.
At Wednesday night’s full council meeting, the Labour group will nominate (and so highly likely vote through) paid/Special Responsibility Allowance posts for, er, all 23 of its councillors.
And of course, as my last piece detailed, all these will in some way receive a pay rise.
The proposals agreed at the recent AGM of the Labour group are:
Cabinet/Mayoral advisors: Helal Uddin, Dave Chesterton, Denise Jones
Chair of Development: Marc Francis
Chair of Licensing: Rajib Ahmed
Speaker of the Council: Khales Uddin Ahmed
Deputy Speaker: Sabina Akhtar
Chair of Overview & Scrutiny Committee: John Pierce
Scrutiny Lead Members for Labour: Amina Ali (Development & renewal); Clare Harrison (Chair of Health Scrutiny); Abdul Mukit Chunu MBE (Resources).
Chief Whip and Chair of the new General Purposes, Appeals and HR Committee: Danny Hassell
Chair of Audit Committee: Candida Ronald
Chair of Pension Committee: Andrew Cregan
And the Cabinet members remain the same, so:
Sirajul Islam: Housing management and performance (and statutory deputy mayor)
Shiria Khatun: Community safety and deputy mayor
Rachael Saunders: Education and children’s services, and deputy mayor
Rachel Blake: Strategic development
Asma Begum: Culture
David Edgar: Resources
Ayas Miah: Environment
Joshua Peck: Work and economic growth
Amy Whitelock Gibbs: Health and adult services
Mayor: John Biggs
That Cllr Chunu Mukit MBE, formerly the chair of Spitalfields Housing Association’s audit committee, is to be given a scrutiny lead for resources, eg examining the way money is spent and how expenses are claimed, is of particular note. Senior Labour figures are full aware of this. Watch this space.
Trial by Jeory 