Foot to stand for Hackney mayor

Matthew Tempest, political correspondent
Monday July 29, 2002

Paul Foot, the journalist, campaigner and son of former Labour leader Michael Foot, is to stand as a candidate for mayor of Hackney, the troubled London borough, it was announced today.
Mr Foot, who has a weekly column in the Guardian, will stand for the Socialist Alliance in the October poll for the borough's first directly elected mayor.

Nearly 60% of Hackney's voters backed a directly elected mayor, on a turnout of 32%, in a referendum alongside May's local elections ballot.

Despite the borough's reputation as a political hotbed, the Socialist Alliance failed to win any seats at the council elections last year, and the Green party lost its only councillor.

Mr Foot's biggest rival is likely to be the leader of the council, Jules Pipe, who has been selected by Labour to fight the inaugural mayoral battle.

Although Mr Pipe will have the backing and money of the Labour party machine, his advantage as virtual "incumbant" could be undermined by the local animosity to the council in any shape or form.

Last May's local authority elections saw Labour win 45 of the 57 seats available, but a Labour-imposed 10% council tax increase, coupled with a huge sell-off programme of council assets and service cuts, has proved unpopular in the borough.

The council, which was run jointly by Labour and the Tories until Labour won control a year before the last elections, ran up an enormous debt and had to call in the then local authority minister, Stephen Byers, for emergency funding.

Hackney received a one-off grant of £25m in February to head off "unnacceptable cuts" in the council budget, as a black hole in council finances was uncovered last year.

Since then battles have been fought to save local nurseries and other services from the axe.

There are is another alternative to Paul Foot in Hackney's mayoral elections : Terry Edwards. Mr Edwards has done a Ken by leaving the LP after 40 years and standing on a broadly Old Labour ticket. He is also well known in tenants association circles : he is currently chair of Hackney Tenants Convention. While I wouldn't say he was necessarily a "good" candidate (in the same way I don't think Paul Foot is a good candidate), he is also opposing Jules Pipe : slimebag of New Labour. Mr Foot will, I understand, be standing against the impending war with Iraq; whereas Mr Edwards at least will be standing against housing privatisation and cuts to community facilities in Hackney...

Incidentally, one thing to remember about Mr Foot's May local election results was that he stood in Hackney's most middle class ward. I doubt he would have polled so well in hackney Wick, for example. And so "well-rooted" are Hackney SA that leading members don't even have a clue who Terry Edwards is.