There aren’t many times when events at Westminster mirror the comedy in the murky pit of Tower Hamlets politics, but as Labour begins the process of choosing a new national leader, so too do the party’s councillors in the East End.
Tonight, its new all-powerful group of 41 councillors, elected last Thursday after crushing George Galloway’s Respect party, meet to elect their next boss.
The election was a triumph for former council leader Helal Abbas, who has spent the past two years plotting the downfall of his old friend and now sworn enemy, Lutfur Rahman. In this quest, he allied with his his former nemesis Michael Keith and his band of supporters such as Denise Jones and, more silently, Josh Peck. Together, they accused Rahman of being too much under the influence of the Islamic Forum of Europe (IFE), allegations partly designed to scare Ken Clark, the director of the London Labour party, into keeping the Tower Hamlets Labour branches in special measures.
This meant Abbas and co effectively controlled the selection process for candidates. And so it has come to pass that his supporters are now a majority in the new group.
Soundings taken last night suggested that Abbas can command 26 votes against the 15 who are either Lutfur Rahman diehards or waverers.
I expect Abbas to be elected tonight and Josh Peck to be named his deputy.
However, just as there is a time limit on Gordon Brown, there will be on Abbas. For in October, voters will again go to the polls in Tower Hamlets to choose a directly elected mayor who will have wide-ranging powers.
This is the next big prize and although Respect lost heavily last week – it now has just one councillor and even he, Harun Miah, may defect to Labour – it will fight until the death to get its person in place.
Rumours abound that the defeated George Galloway may stand, but he considers himself too big for the job, and, in any case, he wouldn’t win. Some town hall insiders think Ken Livingstone might even throw his hat into the ring, but that too is rubbish: besides anything else, he neither lives nor works in the borough, so he doesn’t actually meet the criteria. Abjol Miah, who is no longer a councillor and who lost for Respect in Bethnal Green and Bow, is more likely.
As for Labour, one name doing the rounds is Michael Keith. Though he missed out in St Katherine’s and Wapping last week, he is still popular with the regional HQ, which is likely to oversee the selection procedure.
But Abbas also wants the job. Tonight’s faction fight will be nothing as compared with what’s yet to come.
Trial by Jeory 
“after crushing George Galloway’s Respect party,”
Ted it is not George Galloway’s Party its just The Respect party we were just lucky to have an MP remember we are only 5 years old look at the Green party who is 30 years old and they just got there first MP Caroline who we gave full support to.
And when you say Crushed the same should be said for the Lib Dem’s who once ruled the town hall? what happened there I would say that they took a bigger blow than Respect just look at the votes and how many votes Respect received in some wards (excluding ours)
I know that we ran a very fair and honest election and I was on the selection panel and the majority of those selected were good honest people that really did care about Tower Hamlets and believe me they was only interested in making things more accountable in Tower Hamlets something we have not had for decades and we most prob will not have for the next four yearsand No we did not do dirty tricks and we did not predict that we would take over the town hall and we did not go for block voting.
I was at the count and could see who had hundreds of votes on a sheet of 19 people and only number 6 was crossed off? so there was a lot that went on between the lines perhaps you should look more into postal votes we all know you done some good work on that in the past.
You go on to talk about fractions? but do you know really what is going on there it was good to have some who did not bend over to the whip and stood on principles but to say it is some kind of conspiracy ‘Really’you know when they are being challenged they will try to discredit people Please go back to the Gilbert era and we can see what we went through
Also i remember you when you were a supporter of things to be fair honest and open but do you really think that now there will be an improvement without anyone standing up to what is going to occur
Also you say George thinks he is to big for the Mayor Job come on Ted you know George and you know he would never say or even think that please look at his record and stop acting like you believe all you read in the Red tops