Your Party leader Jeremy Corbyn has thrown his support behind independent candidates in Redbridge ahead of the local elections in May.
He has officially backed the Redbridge Independents, which he said represent a “growing and diverse movement, united in a belief that local councils exist to protect public services and support the most vulnerable in our society”.
Residents will go to the polls on 7 May to elect candidates to Redbridge Council, which is currently controlled by an overwhelming Labour majority. All 63 seats are up for grabs.
Candidates standing for or endorsed by Your Party will campaign for “free school meals, social housing and the in-sourcing of public services” while “standing fearlessly against this government’s shameful complicity in genocide,” Corbyn wrote in the London Standard.
The former Labour Party leader continued: “Gaza is miles away, they say, so why are we talking about it during local elections?
“For starters, local government pension scheme funds invest more than £12.2 billion in companies complicit in Israel’s grave violations of international law, including in the arms companies that manufacture the bombs and bullets used to murder Palestinians.
“That’s why local council divestment from Israeli apartheid will be a core demand in our campaigns.”
Only one authority has so far committed to divesting its pension funds: the Labour-run Waltham Forest Council.
The process has been long and slow as all London council pensions are pooled together and overseen by the London Collective Investment Vehicle, and no authority has direct involvement with their money.
Health Secretary Wes Streeting, whose Ilford North constituency lies within Redbridge, has also hit the campaign trail.
In a video posted to social media, the Labour official said: “On 7 May, you’re voting for Redbridge Council – not the UN Security Council.”
He said that while the plights of people in Palestine, Sudan or Kashmir – which Corbyn directly mentioned in a promotional video – were “important international issues,” they were issues Redbridge “has zero influence or responsibility over”.
He called the rhetoric “divisive” and said a Labour-run council would stand for “all communities”.
In the July general elections, Streeting came within 530 votes of being unseated by Leanne Mohamad – one of the ‘Gaza independents’ who attacked Labour for its support of Israel in its war against Hamas.
YouGov polls project that Labour will keep hold of the borough, but the party has struggled in recent by-elections.
The seat belonging to former council leader Jas Athwal – now Streeting’s parliamentary neighbour as MP for Ilford South – went to independent candidate Noor Begum in a shock win last March.
Though Labour managed to keep hold of Hainault in a by-election in May, councillor Helen Mullis won by just a single vote.
Your Party is fielding very few candidates in London but will be aiding the campaigns of local independents across the 32 boroughs. In east London, Corbyn has also backed the Aspire party in Tower Hamlets and the Newham Independents Party.
