Lutfur rahman

You may be disturbed by a column urging whites (among others) to vote as a bloc in the coming local elections in the London borough of Tower Hamlets. Tactical voting, but not as we’ve known it. I realise this is delicate. But I’ve been conscious of a dilemma over where to put my cross on the ballot for mayor, which would normally be with the Conservative. And it’s with a shudder that I say that, using my postal vote, I have just voted Labour. For a single, simple reason. Non-Bengali-speakers in the borough must unite if the rascal who has established himself as a favourite son among the Bangladeshi community is to be confounded.

Westminster is in recess but many of its finest are out and about, knocking up doors in their local constituencies. Council elections are just five weeks away and while some struggle to muster enthusiasm for such contests, the result will invariably be seen as a referendum on the two main party leaders. But amid all the paper candidates and MP wannabes, one name on a forthcoming ballot paper clearly jumps out: Lutfur Rahman, the prospective mayor of Tower Hamlets. Steerpike has long covered the antics of Rahman, who in 2015 earned himself the dubious distinction of being Britain’s first directly elected mayor to be removed after being found guilty of electoral fraud.

Readers with long memories might recall the shambles of Tower Hamlets' election night in 2014, when the count took more than five days to complete. The man who was re-elected as mayor that day was Lutfur Rahman who, the following year, earned the dubious distinction of being Britain’s first directly elected mayor to be removed after being found guilty of electoral fraud. Rahman was slapped with a five-year ban on standing for elected office after the Election Court reported him to be ‘personally guilty’ of ‘corrupt or illegal practices or both.’ Now though, Rahman's ban is completed, and his former office is up for grabs in May.

Remember Lutfur Rahman? In 2015 the then mayor of Tower Hamlets earned the dubious distinction of being Britain’s first directly elected mayor to be removed after being found guilty of electoral fraud. Rahman was slapped with a five-year ban on standing for elected office after the Election Court reported him to be ‘personally guilty’ of ‘corrupt or illegal practices or both.’ Judge Richard Mawrey said he'd ‘driven a coach and horses through election law and didn't care’ while his party Tower Hamlets First, was ‘never really a party but the alter ego of Lutfur Rahman’.