Rokhsana Fiaz

Rokhsana Fiaz is a Labour and Co-operative Party politician serving as Mayor of Newham.

Fiaz was elected as a councillor for the Newham ward of Custom House in 2014. Ahead of the 2018 mayoral election, following protracted disagreements within the local party, the incumbent Labour Mayor of Newham (and the first directly elected Mayor of Newham) Sir Robin Wales was not automatically re-selected as the Labour Party's candidate. In the open selection that followed, Fiaz defeated Wales for the Labour nomination by 861 votes to 503.

Fiaz was subsequently elected mayor in May 2018, receiving 73.4% of the first preference votes (53,214 votes). She is the first directly elected female mayor for any London borough.

Fiaz promised to hold a referendum on the direct elected mayoral system and this took place in May 2021. Voters decided by 56% to 44% to retain the system.

In the local elections of May 2022 Rokhsana Fiaz was returned as mayor for second term, securing 35,696 votes (56.2%).

Personal life
Fiaz was born in Mile End Hospital in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets to parents who had moved to London from Pakistan in the 1960s.

Honours
In the 2009 Birthday Honours, Fiaz was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) "for services to Black and Minority Ethnic People."