Well, well, well…there’s something at least to take from tonight’s result: it will keep the writers of Private Eye amused for the months and years to come.
As I type, I understand that right now in the corridors of the Labour party office in Bethnal Green, there is little celebrating, but much shouting and arguing. The man the party hierarchy tried so hard to block is now its candidate-elect for next month’s mayoral election. If the party confirms his victory and confirms it is willing to let the result stand, it is 95 per cent certain that in about six weeks’ time Lutfur Rahman will be one of the most powerful local politicians in Britain. The man who has been mired in so much controversy, the man who struggles to command an audience, the man who trembles under questioning (and, yes, the man who, to his credit, was also good enough to bow to grass roots pressure and save the Bancroft History Library and archives), will be in charge of a £1billion budget.
I’m told that Lutfur’s campaign was executed like a well-funded “military operation” and he seems to have benefited from what a Bengali councillor told me was a “real absence of the white vote”. This is how it works in Tower Hamlets. There will be close scrutiny over his campaign funds and who has financed him…and who might expect favours in return. His enemies tell me to watch this space for the award of communications/publishing contracts and who might run the lucrative Baishakhi Mela festival.
If Lutfur beats the Lib Dems’ John Griffiths, Tory Neil King and whoever Respect decide to pick, Marc Francis, who six weeks ago probably thought his political career was over, will likely be deputy mayor.
More later, probably.
UPDATE:
You can see how the votes unfolded on this link here.
Trial by Jeory 
No surprises here. The divisive extremist political infiltration of TH Labour party has succeeded due to the incompetence of party officials constant failures to deal with Lutfur Rahman. Immediately after the results were announced, LR and his hardcore allies headed over to businessman Shirajul Haques Clifton restaurant at Brick Lane to be greeted, hugged and congratulated by IFE activist, Hira, and by the moonlighting ex-assistant chief executive of LBTH council, Lutfur Ali.
These are not rumours. Many pro-Lutfur councillors were present. And if that is not forthcoming, I am sure soon to be ejected Cllr. Abdal Ullahs CCTV cameras will tell the truth. So go on Abdal, delete the camera footage in return for a non-functional cabinet position!
Must say Congratulations and well done to Lutfur Rahman for clearly winning the Labour party nomination, although the membership was ambigious, and I hope we can now get ward meetings to be quorate!
On my way home, I realised a little celebration taking place at businessman Shiraj Haque’s Clifton restaurant on Brick Lane. Full of pro-Lutfur activists, it was no surprise to watch Lutfur being warmly greeted and hugged by none other than the former assistant chief executive of the council, Lutfur Ali, who was caught moonlighting and had to resign from his job for getting caught-out. Moreso, the controversial IFE senior activist, Hira, was also joyous in hugging Lutfur Rahman. So it seems Andrew Gilligan and yourself do have some truth in the countless accusations of extremist infiltration into the Labour party, and for exposing the ‘jobs for the boys’ scandal.
If you do not believe me, then all you have to do is ask the soon to be defunct cabinet member for Community Safety, Cllr. Abdal Ullah, to rewind his CCTV camera and give us the evidence. So there you go now Abdal, take the tape along to Lutfur Rahman, and make a deal with him to get back into cabinet!
I would have paid an absolute fortune to see Andrew Gilligan’s face when he heard of Lutfur’s result. This is a great day for democracy. Hail democracy. Hail Democracy.
Nice to see you’re still doing the detailed research. Labour really cannot be trusted in Tower Hamlets. Residents are going to have to elect an independent mayor, not tribal leader.
Real absence of the white vote? Sounds like sour grapes from Keith or Biggs to me.
Turnout was around 72%, which is remarkably high for this type of LP selection.
Whatever the pros and cons of Lutfur Rahman, at least TH will be spared the return of the odious, widely-despised Michael Keith, who made such a hash of running the place last time round.
I say this is quite odd, this Shafique Haque (apparently a Bengali male) and Shireen Islam (apparently a Bengali female) seemingly are one and the same person masquerading as two different posters for reason unknown.
He/ she is spinning the same weird tale here but what exactly we are to reasonably believe from such a person who is so confused as to their own gender and identity with hormonal problems is left to be decided.
Whoever you happen to be take a tip- next time when you try to spin such yarn at least conceive a believable identity rather than be all tied up with receiving backhanders behind the scenes from Awami League patriots and being such sore losers no matter who wins, whether its this Mr. Lutfur Rahman chap or others.
Cheerio, Bangladeshi politics in the East End does have its comical moments- this being one of them.
@ boilermaker
That is a bit of an odd thing to say and suggests that John and Michael didn’t have notable support from ethnic minority members which isn’t true. On your own analysis ‘the white vote’ backed the white candidates; you might want to consider why that might be and how it fits in with the concept of ‘One Tower Hamlets’. Having a candidate that draws their support almost exclusively from one constituency group will be problematic.
Despising somebody is subjective; if you dislike somebody there is no need to justify it, however you should be adult enough to separate subjective statements from factually incorrect ones. Paraphrased : ‘Michael is widely despised’ you say that as if other leading candidates were not also widely despised. That aside you really need to separate things like that from statements which can be empirically tested : ‘who made such a hash of running the place last time round’. What metric are you using to substantiate that? Who was leading the council when Tower Hamlets won three beacon awards for excellence? If you accuse somebody of making a hash of X you ought to justify it empirically. It seems to me that you don’t let facts disrupt the flow of your posts. That’s never a good sign.
Blimey, didn’t expect to ruffle many feathers there. It was the original post, not me, who linked Rahman’s success to the “real absence of the white vote”. I mentioned Keith and Biggs as they seem like the ones who underperformed most in the vote.
I’m not quite actually how anyone could draw that conclusion about the “white vote”, as the ballot papers don’t ask you for your ethnic background, other than by them assuming members largely vote for someone of their own ethnic background.
I can empirically test my thesis about Michael Keith being despised by talking to many TH residents who remember that period in time. As voters their opinions count for more than some nonsense beacon awards for excellent box ticking.
Thanks for the English lesson though.
I love our democracy. Long live the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.
Saying there was an absence of white votes which I didn’t say you said, and then saying it sounds like sour grapes infers that John and Michael were overly reliant on white members which I don’t think was the case.
I agree with you that nobody would know who might be voting and where. That said there were plenty of tellers at the polling station it would have been relatively easy to count white members going in, perhaps that’s how he/she came to that view. Amusing of course they then went on to Vote JB/MK which in Tower Hamlets is a reasonable thing to assume.
Many people don’t like Michael but I don’t think it’s fair to portray him as the only villain in the pantomime nor is he the only politician to have lost elections, Rushanara beat whom? I find your point about beacon award box ticking interesting. I think Labour members have a duty to nominate somebody who is not only competent but also has the strongest track record on delivery, if not for themselves for the wider community.
The metric you’re using factors in internal politics which I don’t think the wider community is that interested in. In so much as so many Labour members seem to use your metric perhaps they deserve to be in special measures most other CLPs nominate based on competence and delivery.
Michael did X which upset you (and others) but still managed provide good services, award winning services but that doesn’t impress you, on your metric you’d support somebody who had a weaker CV had a weaker track record but who upset you less. That’s fine, but it’s one of the reasons Tower Hamlets lurches from one disaster to the next.
You’re probably older than me and have had far more exposure to party politics in Tower Hamlets than I have. My grandmother always says I should keep quiet because I’ve just come out of an egg shell; I certainly wasn’t trying to give you a lesson in anything and will heed her advice from now on! Perhaps Labour members should have taken Rosna Mortuza up on her offer for a fresh politics!