Redbridge Labour, home to millionaire donors‘ favourite healthcare privatiser Wes Streeting, has used dog-whistle tactics the day before the local elections to try and sway voters.

Streeting’s Labour is haemorrhaging votes, and it’s desperate

Labour and Streeting have been haemorrhaging votes in the borough since at least 2024, largely to left-wing independents. And when we spoke to Redbridge Independents recently, they said very few voters locally are willing to admit they’re planning to vote for Labour.

The governing party is knee-deep in scandal and mismanagement. And as the main opposition to Labour in Redbridge, independents have the momentum to take a big chunk out of Labour’s vote in this local election.

Fully aware of this, Redbridge Labour has resorted to racist dog-whistling on the eve of the election. Specifically, it has sought to suggest that Redbridge Independents (whose leader Vaseem Ahmed is Muslim) would not serve “the whole community”.

What was even more absurd was that independents aren’t even running in this particular ward.

Redbridge Labour wanted people not to vote Green in Wanstead Park ward to ‘keep the independents out’. But Green candidates Milli Richards Clack and Nadir Iqbal Gilani are in fact the only left-wing challengers to Labour in the ward.

The fact that Labour would talk about Redbridge Independents, even in a ward where they aren’t running, says two things. One, it shows just how much headspace the local party has given to its main opponents. And two, it suggests they see the independents as a serious threat to ongoing Labour control of the council.

Unfortunately, this isn’t even the first time Redbridge Labour has used dog-whistle tactics during this election campaign.

‘Dog-whistle politics, and cynical games to divide communities’

Responding to Labour’s final-day dog-whistle flyer, a spokesperson for Redbridge Independents told the Canary:

This is exactly the kind of dog-whistle politics we’ve been warning about from Wes Streeting’s Labour Party.

Instead of bringing people together, they’re trying to divide communities and play cynical games with voters.

It shows a party that’s lost its direction willing to say anything to hold on to power. And it raises a serious question: what does this say to the very communities Labour claims to represent?

People deserve better than this.

This has become a habit for Streeting and his local Labour Party, though. Back in March, Streeting himself sent out a letter dog-whistling about his main opponents.

Independents ‘tearing apart’ Streeting’s vote share

Streeting alleged that the independents, who organised a massively successful campaign to challenge him in the 2024 general election, were somehow ‘tearing the community apart’ by daring to take a stand. And he claimed independents were “divisive” and only sought to “represent some of us”.

As in the latest flyer, Streeting didn’t even get the name of Redbridge Independents right:

Our statement on Wes Streeting’s disgraceful dog-whistle slurs, as Labour goes into full panic mode!

They’re terrified of the reckoning that awaits them on 7 May!

Btw – he ought to get our name right because, in the style of Mayor Mamdani, we’re REDBRIDGE INDEPENDENTS! pic.twitter.com/SR15ThRkVj

— Redbridge Independents (@RedbridgeIndys) March 26, 2026

Streeting later added the “sectarian” smear to his dog-whistling arsenal.

However, many Redbridge voters believe it’s Streeting who is actually the one trying to divide local people while serving just a section of society (i.e. his rich and powerful donors). And they look set to send a message that his party’s dirty politics are no longer welcome in Redbridge.

Featured image via the Canary

By Ed Sykes

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