I’ve been sent a copy of Lutfur Rahman’s election expenses, which are publicly available from Tower Hamlets council for a cost of just a few quid. However, the dutiful public servant that I am, and in the spirit WikiLeaks, I thought it would be useful to simply publish them here.
I won’t go into detail about every single penny of his £11,316.69 spend, but instead allow you, dear “army of armchair auditors”, to undertake your own exercises in scrutiny.
To help, this link outlines what details limited companies must include on their invoices.
This is the summary sheet:
And the full document can be found here. Informed comments only, please. Any baseless accusations will not be allowed.
And, in the interests of fairness and balance, if anyone has the expenses for the other candidates, do please email them to me.
Trial by Jeory 
It’s a shame some people’s pre-election idol Abbas got less than half the votes Lutfur got despite spending just £300 less than him. Must be the blessed leaflets printed by Media Leak!
Can’t be bothered reading it. Let me know if there’s anything in there about T-Mobile text messages, please.
A few thoughts from a former agent:
1. Lutfur financed the whole of his campaign himself – all £11,316.69. In a UK election this is unusual, but I guess this was an unusual election. Presumably he is independently wealthy?
2. More surprising is that he seems to have received no donations at all. Most political campaigns would at least receive the odd £10 here, the odd £20 there (too small to be disclosable individually, but included in 4b). If there were to be evidence that he received any donations at all then his return would be incorrect.
3. The fact he discloses no notional donations (4c) means that he is saying all his expenses were on market terms – i.e. no special deals from friends/family/etc. So if I were the suspicious type and had the time, I’d go through those invoices, call the firms for quotes, and see if any of them seem out of whack.
4. The final thing that’s unusual about the return is that it discloses more than is usual. Without getting into the details of the rules, most professional agents would choose to have the campaign run by a committee or party so that the return can be “all notional”. This is simpler administratively and allows the agent full control over spending, and most agents would therefore regard it as best practice. But a side effect is to result in less disclosure (no need to set out individual items; no need to include invoices). If I was dishonest and had something to hide this is definitely the approach I would take, and the world would never see my invoices. Lutfur, on the other hand did not do this – so perhaps he has nothing to hide; or perhaps he didn’t have a particularly experienced agent.
5. I wouldn’t focus on whether the invoices comply with company law etc – this could be a problem for the companies providing printing etc for Lutfurm but is strictly irrelevant to the election rules.
I concur.
Cant see anything unusual- unless I am told otherwise, although suprised he did not get any donations or is that declared on some other form?. £11,316.69 is not a significant amount if earn £120K+ as a senior solicitor.
The issue is not whether he could afford the expenses.
The scrutiny issue is whether all the donations and expenses have been properly declared.
You seriously think he got no donations?
Very unlikely, although he could have refused to take any when offered. We will never know.
This campaign definitely cost more than this ‘genetically engineered’ electoral expenses return describes. It is as bad as some Lib-Dem’s trying to tell us they will abstain against the disasterous increase in University Tuition Fees!
Just look at this link that advises us of the rates for advertising in London Bangla, the free weekly newspaper that alledged a demonstration for a ‘wife-beating’ demo? According to Lutfur’s dodgy election return, he only paid £100 for a full-page, and £50 for half-page adverts respectively. However the rate card advises £1350 and £750 respectively. Is this an extremely generous friends & fanily discount or notional donation(4c)?
http://londonbangla.co.uk/advertising.html
Advertisements have to be paid for and declared.
Editorial is not an expense – since (in theory) it cannot be bought (tell that to the Italians!). Which is why editorial has to comply with the rules about making sure all parties get a fair share.
A newspaper which fails to comply with the rules on editorial during elections leaves itself open to challenge and potential penalties.
That’s not true actually. Only broadcasters are subject to those editorial rules under the Representation of the People Act. Newspapers can be as biased as they like…
Maybe we should refer them to the Advertising Standards Authority then! 😉
PS: According to another invoice provided by weekly newspaper ‘Notun Din’, it claims only a cost of £100 for a full-page advert when their actual advertising rate-card advises the cost being £1750? Another F&F discount or simply a dodgy invoice?
Click to access notun.din.rate.card.pdf
A word of advice for Takki at the council: I am pretty certain that LBTH must have placed advertisements in these publications at some point? Can they advise us how much they were quoted for a full-page or half-page advert? Furthermore, if LBTH did pay rate-card rates, will LBTH now get a whopping discount is Mayor Lutfur Rahman does the negotiating?
Coco, Bangla papers offer different rates for small business, it maybe surprising but ask any Bengali person that has dealings with Bangla papers and they will tell you that this is a normal price. £100 for a full page is the usual price small business & community groups pay.
But Lutfur is neither a small business nor a community group. He was one of a range of private individuals seeking political office.
If they offered him a discount they should have offered advertising to each of the other candidates at a similar discount – did they?
The rules are that expenses have to be declared at the full commercial rate.
If a discount has been allowed then that needs to be declared as part of the submission of electoral expenses.
Given one of the links provided I think Ted may well have spotted the same thing I spotted.
The VAT on some of the invoices also looks interesting and Customs and Execise might find it even more interesting than I do.
The latest guidance on local government elections issued by the Electoral Commission appears to be found on this page http://www.electoralcommission.org.uk/guidance/resources-for-those-we-regulate/candidates-and-agents#local
There is a pdf file which provides very detailed guidance of election expenses and donations – Guidance for candidates and agents: local government elections in England 6 May 2010 (PDF)
This states among other things
“The election expenses limit includes the full commercial value of items or services that are given to the campaign, paid for on the candidate’s behalf or provided at a discount of more than 10% of the commercial rate.”
I think that should probably be read to mean the full commercial value including all relevant VAT.
I wonder if Lutfur registered for VAT – and in what capacity?
Others who are more experienced than I am in how VAT works in relation to election expenses may care to comment?
You do not have to be registered for VAT if your company turnover is less then £58k but you will have to pay VAT. If you dont register then you will not be able to claim any input vat. Not all items are VATable, there are many different vat ratings such as books and folded leaflets are 0% rated VAT, 5% VAT is charged on gas bills but 17.5% is charged for petrol etc.
Exactly – you have to pay VAT if the business has to charge it on vattable items.
The issue – where VAT is missing – is whether some of these businesses are claiming that their business turnover is less than the turnover threshold for VAT registration.
If (and it’s a big “if”) it’s been left off by businesses which should be charging it on vattable items (because they have registered for VAT or because they should register for VAT) in order to help reduce Rahman’s electoral expenses below the allowable threshold then things could get “very interesting’ indeed!
You are just confused! Lots of items are not vatable regardless if you are VAT registered or not. You don’t need to pay VAT if they are not vatable items.
Not so. Read what I said again.
I agree – IF they are not vatable items and/or if the company is not registered for VAT and does not have a VAT registration no.
However Companies not noting their VAT registration number and/or VAT on an invoice for a vattable item when they are VAT registered is not an option.
Now take another look at the invoices. I’m not going to comment any further as I’ve gone as far as I want to.
Didn’t Mayor Rahman spend organise a big dinner somewhere posh when he was selected by Labour members before he got suspended and then expelled? How much did the venue and food cost for 1,200 people? The council should do future events with them if the mayor can get ‘discounts’!
i think your talking about the Troxy venue where they had a big bash! i suppose he paid all by himself!
To hire the Troxy for a gala dinner with all the lights, PA and big screen etc. costs £13,000.
Then there is the cost of catering on top…..
nothing wrong with anything!
What is interesting from the expenses is that it is pretty clear that his marketing, publicity and vote-seeking was targetted very heavily (almost exclusively?) at the Bangladeshi community.
Proves my belief that he did nothing to get the support of the rest of the electorate (who should feel excluded as a result). Not great for somebody who promises to unite the community. And potentially opens the door for other organisations to step in and start appealing to the excluded majority of residents in TH – not good.
Does anybody know
(1) how much allowable expenses relate to an individual and how much to a political party and
(2) when you have to start counting them?
I thought all election expenses which relate to a political party are only split off and ealt with separately where these are quite clearly related to party and not individual.
My understanding is that all expenses incurred by an INDIVIDUAL in relation to an election have to be claimed even if you changed the party you were running for half way through!
But perhaps somebody knows different and can quote definitive practice and precedent on this?
In response:
1. It would be very surprising if Rahman earned anything like £120k as a solicitor at a small family law firm. Perhaps he has more money from non-execs/quango appointments?
2. If Rahman paid the same rate as a community group then this is unlikely to be viewed as a notional donation. If he got any other kind of discount then there could be a problem.
3. Political campaigns can’t be VAT registered. They therefore can’t recover the VAT they pay on goods/services, and so this VAT amount simply forms part of their expenses. i.e. if they are charged £100 for balloons, the balloon supplier will (if VAT registered) actually invoice £117.50 and this will be the relevant amount on the expenses returned.
(1) He was earning at least £35K for leader upto may election, and even in a small solicitors practice it would not be unusual to earn £80-90K.
(2) If indeed he did get a discounted rate it needs to be exposed. What happens next? Good old Cllr Golds raises concerns maybe.
When is the council’s next big meeting? Will Mayor Rahman’s ally Cllr Shalina Akhtar be expected to resign for benefit fraud? Or will they pretend it wasn’t a shameful or disgraceful but a noble act in line with existing standards?!
Full council meeting tonight was hilarious though it was a disgraceful affront to conventional wisdom in local governance. What remains striking is that a bunch of arrogant idiots occupying town hall seats at our expense appear to have no correlation to reality out there where an economic downturn combined with public spending cuts have paralysed public confidence in politicians. Tower Hamlets or Horror Hamlets?!
Anything of interest to report or was a game of battleships called lets sink the mayor?
Exactly! We were all witnessed yesterday – when Mayor was busy fighting cuts, talking to protesters outside in cold weather, bunch of idiots was busy upstairs whipping people not support mayors proposals/motions etc, but brave man Marc Francis broke the whip in both Council meeting, bravo Marc! Cllr Abbas mentioned at the meeting that they are willing to work with the elected Mayor of Tower Hamlets but when deputy mayor brought a motion to formalise this so that talented people (he hinted people like Carlo Gibbs/Amy white lock will be useful in this difficult time) can be freed up to work with the Mayor , but Abbas/Josh and them couldn’t fulfil their commitment next minute because they know no job for them under this Mayor so they are keep blocking others talent – such a hypocrisy and double standard. People of Tower Hamlets can’t wait to see new Mayors political force “True Labour Group” so that all genuine labour Labour councillors/supporters can work together.
Exactly! We were all witnessed yesterday – when Mayor was busy fighting cuts, talking to protesters outside in cold weather, bunch of idiots was busy upstairs whipping people not support mayors proposals/motions etc, but brave man Marc Francis broke the whip in both Council meeting, bravo Marc! Cllr Abbas mentioned at the meeting that they are willing to work with the elected Mayor of Tower Hamlets but when deputy mayor brought a motion to formalise this so that talented people (he hinted people like Carlo Gibbs/Amy white lock will be useful in this difficult time) can be freed up to work with the Mayor , but Abbas/Josh and them couldn’t fulfil their commitment next minute because they know no job for them under this Mayor so they are keep blocking others talent – such a hypocrisy and double standard. People of Tower Hamlets can’t wait to see new Mayors political force “True Labour Group” so that all true labour Labour can work together.
http://towerhamletswatch.wordpress.com/2010/12/09/cllr-oliur-rahman-spills-the-beans-on-members-enquiries/
Should Labour work with the new mayor or against him even though he states that he will merely be delivering pledges from the Labour manifesto which was formulated by Tower Hamlets Labour Party just before the May 2010 election. Voters must decide in this Spitalfields by-election (and in future) whether to vote for the Labour candidate Abul Aleem because if he wins even he will oppose his own party’s manifesto! Which gives Respect candidate ex-cllr Fazlul Miah an avoidable opportunity to regain his seat in Spitalfields with a big slap against Labour.