Ahead of the May 7 local council elections in the east London borough of Redbridge, a fierce political fight has erupted, pitting incumbent Labour against a rising local challenger party that holds the potential to unseat Labour’s long-standing control of the council. At the center of the row is British Health Secretary Wes Streeting, whose own parliamentary seat is based in Redbridge, a solid Labour stronghold that has been held by the party for years.
Streeting has sounded a sharp alarm over what he labels “sectarian politics” from the Redbridge Independents, a local political grouping backed by former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn’s Your Party. Widely tipped as a likely future Labour leader and prime minister should Keir Starmer step down, Streeting has publicly attacked the challengers in both a letter to local constituents and comments to The Times. In his resident letter, he accused the Redbridge Independents of being a divisive faction that only seeks to represent a subset of the community, claiming it prioritizes foreign conflicts over fixing bread-and-butter local issues like damaged roadways. Speaking to The Times late last week, he doubled down: “We’re voting for Redbridge council, not the UN Security Council. Who you choose to run your local council matters and the Redbridge Independents represent a divisive brand of sectarian politics.”
But Middle East Eye’s on-the-ground reporting has called Streeting’s characterization into question, revealing a much different picture of the challenger party’s priorities.
Redbridge Independents grew out of a grassroots community action group formed specifically to contest the 2024 May local elections, according to party leader Vaseem Ahmed, a long-time local community politician and recruitment firm owner. Ahmed told MEE that 95 percent of the party’s official 20-page election manifesto is focused exclusively on hyper-local issues that directly impact Redbridge’s 300,000 residents. A review of the group’s campaign materials and social media channels confirms this focus: the party’s top priorities are easing the strain of the cost-of-living crisis on local households, responsible management of council budget priorities, and improving access to elected representatives for residents who have long felt ignored by the ruling Labour establishment. To fix long-standing complaints of unresponsive government, the party has pledged to host regular, open public forums where residents can speak directly to council leaders and councillors, rather than being fobbed off to unstaffed phone lines or unanswered emails.
Ahmed acknowledges that the party does hold opposition to the current Labour government’s foreign policy, particularly regarding Israel’s war in Gaza, but stresses that the group is realistic about what a local council can achieve. “Redbridge Council is not going to solve the problem in the Middle East,” he said. Even so, he argues the issue is relevant to local council action: the group is calling for Redbridge Council to divest its public pension fund from companies found to be complicit in Israeli violations of international law, a position that puts it at odds with the current Labour government, which earlier this year warned Labour-run councils they could face legal action if they move forward with boycotts of Israeli-linked businesses.
Ahmed pushed back hard against Streeting’s “sectarian” label, calling it an offensive Islamophobic trope that targets the borough’s large Muslim community. Redbridge is one of London’s most ethnically diverse areas: more than 47 percent of residents identify as Asian or Asian British, and Muslims make up over 30 percent of the population. “It’s such an Islamophobic trope that somehow, if you have Muslims who are in politics, that they’re only going to be worried about fellow Muslims and nobody else,” Ahmed said. “Whereas we live in a diverse community and we represent everybody. You know, if you get elected, you’re not going to focus on one section of the community.”
He added that the party’s candidate list is ethnically diverse and draws candidates from a wide range of professional backgrounds, including CEOs, entrepreneurs, magistrates, lawyers, doctors, educators and finance professionals, all of whom have deep roots in the Redbridge community. “Ordinary people like ourselves are rooted in the community. We live here, we work here, we raise our families here, and we just want our voices to be represented. Right now, we just don’t feel we have that,” Ahmed said, noting that he stepped down from local mosque committee roles when entering politics to avoid any conflict of interest and protect the charitable status of local religious institutions.
The Redbridge Independents’ rise comes as the local Labour Party has been rocked by scandal. In 2025, local Labour MP Jas Athwal resigned his council seat after the BBC uncovered dangerous living conditions—including ant infestations and toxic black mould—in multiple rental properties he owned. That resignation triggered a by-election, which the Redbridge Independents won, demonstrating the party’s early electoral momentum against Labour.
While Your Party, led by Corbyn, has endorsed the Redbridge Independents, Ahmed stressed that the local group retains full autonomy. He explained that Your Party was involved in early conversations about forming a local group, but internal factional conflict within Your Party delayed its official launch, by which point the Redbridge Independents had already organized, begun canvassing and built name recognition across the borough. “Right now our philosophy is that we are unlike other parties here in Redbridge. Whether it’s Greens or Lib Dems or Tories or Labour, they all have to answer to the bosses [nationally],” Ahmed said. “We love the fact that we’re independent and that we can make our own choices for the benefit of the residents of Redbridge.”
Heading into election day, Labour faces challenges from across the political spectrum: Reform UK and the Conservatives on the right, and progressive challengers including the Redbridge Independents and the Green Party on the left. Polling and early results indicators suggest the council could end up with no single party holding a majority after votes are counted, a result that would rank Redbridge as one of Labour’s most high-profile election night defeats.