Leadership of Havering Council Decided

The outcome of the local elections saw no one group gaining an overall majority, with the Conservatives on 25 seats, RA/Independents 24 and Labour 5.

With the opportunity to form an RA led Administration a real possibility, the Annual Meeting of the Council (23/5/18) included the election of Leader in which Cllr Damian White (Conservative), Cllr Clarence Barrett (RA) and Cllr Jeff Tucker (Ind) were the contenders. In order to avoid a split in the RA/Independent vote, Cllr Tucker kindly withdrew his nomination before the vote.

Cllr Barrett requested that each candidate be given 5 minutes to address the Chamber in support of their nomination, however this simple request was declined by the Tories. HERE is what he would have said given the opportunity.

The votes were cast with Cllr White receiving 29 votes, Cllr Barrett 20 votes while the five Labour councillors didn’t vote for anyone. Sadly, among the 29 votes for the conservative candidate were three Harold Wood ‘RA’ councillors (Eagling, Wise and Goode) and one independent from South Hornchurch (Deon-Burton) who actually joined the conservative party after being voted in on an independent ticket.

Unfortunately not the outcome that we, and thousands of voters wanted, but we shall soldier on and hold this administration to account in a robust and fair way. In the meantime, we are extremely privileged to be returned as your councillors for Upminster and Cranham and residents can be assured our efforts to do the best for our community is undiminished.