I’ve just received a call from defeated Spitalfields candidate who lost Thursday’s by-election after first failing to come clean about his violent criminal past and then upsetting local Labour colleagues by being a relatively unknown.
He told me he had just read my post from yesterday about alleged vote fraud and asked if his name could be “withdrawn” from the article. I said that was not possible and that I had already made it clear there was no suggestion he had been involved in any way. He reaffirmed that he knew nothing about the alleged actions of his supporters.
Instead, he said it was in fact Respect, not Labour, which was guilty of vote fraud. He said: “This is what they always do. They thought they were going to lose and they set these allegations up. I believe that they did a lot of stuff. I saw them running up and down with a lot of people. In the centres, my people stopped a lot of their voters – these people didn’t live at the addresses they said they did.”
When I asked whether those alleged serious incidents had been reported to the police or to the Returning Officer, he said: “I don’t know. I will have to talk to my people.” I told him that given the serious nature of the allegations I was surprised that he, the candidate, wasn’t aware if they had been reported to the police. His answer was: “It’s Respect who generates these things.”
As Tower Hamlets council’s Returning Officer has now referred two of Respect’s allegations (Christ Church and Arthur Deakin House) to the police, Alim can be confident that any meaty evidence he supplies will be taken similarly seriously.
PS…will post on the Marc Francis situation later.
Trial by Jeory 
Any political candidate or councillor or MP who is aware of serious allegations of vote fraud but does NOT ensure these are reported to the police does not deserve to stand for political office in this borough – or to keep that office if they have already been elected.
I’m sure I won’t be alone in holding this view.
It’s the job of ALL politicians to clean up the way politics is conducted in this borough.
Clean your own houses before others do it for you!
Ted thank you for this Post
I would really ove to see any supposed evidence supporting this – but as we all know its complete fabrication I oversaw most of the canvassing and can say that we fought a very fair and completely honest election as we always have and always will. I do not have to point out to you that we have uncovered many many allegations of Fraudulent actions by other party supporters during elections and we completely detest the way the postal vote situation has been used to the advantage of the nu Labour party.
I found it quiet refreshing at the count of what i saw that the postal vote was so carefully checked and scrutinised but as we all know this was a small turnout due to it being a By-election the time of year and of course the weather we have had to endure over the canvassing period but we won the sear fair and square Trust Me and we used our limited resources and our loyal committed supporters to win. and not any underhand doings!
.
We did not use the machine that was at others disposal or have scores of councillors MPs and men in suits to make sure that they gained this seat in this ward which is really Fozols home ground we did not make any aspersions on leaflets about others or imply that others were not fit to stand ( this it the way they work) but just spoke on facts not fabrication.
Fozol is well known in the community and was as we all know just pipped at the post at the last election he has done some very good campaigning work in the ward while he was a councillor he was instrumental in stopping the Spitalfields HA taking over millions of £££ worth of public assets he stopped the strip clubs getting a grip on the area he worked alongside the anti Cross rail hole in Hanbury Street which was a success and many other good things to benefit the community
I think in fact I know his past actions won the election and his charming character
The sour grapes from an outsider coming in that even the local party members were against was doomed from the start this is why they have to result in tactics that are underhand
Hopefully you can be more positive about Respect because we are in it for the People and we will always stand by what we say
Jobs Homes Peace Justice and Equality
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This is pretty desperate stuff from Labour. Respect seems to have made substantiated claims to the police. Now the defeated Labour candidate rings you up to make very vague, ambiguous claims about Respect – which he hasn’t reported to the police!
The local Labour party members (headed by sound minded non Lutfurites) being against an imposed candidate such as Abdul Alim means that Cllr Abbas will be the next victim in Spitalfields but in 2014 to lose his seat!
Ted,
Have you gone slightly off your trolley?
Give up the strawman sockpuppet, Fighting for Dan.
Councillor Carly Harpa Penman, the divisive chair of Tower Hamlets Labour group who apparently led the campaign for and voted in controversial Lutfur Rahman as Leader of the council when he was a relative unknown, is now being blamed for wanting Abdul Alim as SBT candidate against the wishes of other Labour councillors and members. She is also being blamed for never campaigning for the defeated Mr Alim even though she recommended him to Cllr Josh Peck as she wanted to teach Mayor Rahman a lesson for not pork barreling (rewarding) her with a Cabinet position for making him so powerful since 2008 when Rahman first became Leader and rose to prominence, fame and notoriety. A group of councillors are rumoured to have already lodged a complaint against her to the Standards Panel for failing to control alcohol outlets across the borough while she was Licensing chair granting hundreds of off license permissions to business people with no Designated Premise Licenseholder experience. Time for Mayor Rahman must investigate the rise in alcohol abuse in Tower Hamlets over the past 4 years immediately.
Fighting4EdMiliband –
There is a fine line between informed rumours and scurrilous and made-up gossip. You’ve had a habit in your comments of sometimes peddling rubbish. Let’s please deal in facts as far as we can. Your comments about Cllr Carli Harper-Penman are ignorant, just as is your knowledge of the licensing process.
You’re a frequent commenter on this blog and generally I welcome that, but you are treading a fine line. Again, informed comments and questions, please, otherwise I’ll mark yours as spam.
Thanks
Ted
Seconded Ted.
Carole dear,
You talk abour the Labour candidate not being a local boy but some kind of imposed boy?
Would you kindly confirm that your boy Fozol Miah actually does NOT LIVE in Tower Hamlets which means he is definitely not a local person. And as I expect, if you dare to tell me otherwise, can you explain why all his children attend schools that are in Newham or Redbridge rather than here in Tower Hamlets? Come clean, rather than have an embarassing episode such as ShelinaGate.
Looks like Spitalfields and Bengalitown is marred by scandalous gates: AbbasMustGoGate (series too long to list eg surname change to get elected), Lutfur’s hijabgate (falsely thought he was in Iran), Gulamgate (Mortuza joins Respect to become MP then goes back to Lab only to lose, then expects his inexperienced baby daughter to run TH council with Brick Lane’s betel nut crew), Shelinagate (benefit fraud and subletting her council flat), Alim’s Fraudgate (Labour’s fake voter gets caught but bizarrely Alim accuses Respect of same practice but fails to report to police as he ‘investigates with his people’, suppose that’s his fellow villager n loser Abbas), James Folgate (Musabeer’s secret admirer breaks down in tears after Alim’s defeat accusing party of malpractice) and now FozAldgate (Coco whip believes Cllr Fozol Miah doesn’t live in Aldgate)! What next in S&BT?
Ted, thanks for your comments and appreciated too where applicable! However, please can you confirm whether Cllr Carli Harper-Penman voted for Lutfur Rahman or not as Labour’s leader in 2008? If she did then why was she not deselected like the Bengali Cllrs Salim Ullah, Md Shahid Ali and Fazlul Haque? What kind of discrimination was it? Secondly, as chair of Labour group how much (how many hours) did she campaign for Abdul Alim in SBT? And finally, did licensed outlets including pertinent reports to police increase or decrease under Cllr Penman’s chairmanship of the Licensing Panel in the last Labour administration? Your undivergent enlightenment will be appreciated.
I can’t honestly remember, but not all who did vote for him were deselected. Of the three names yo mention above, two thoroughly deserved to be de-selected and I’ve written about this before. I’ve also said that booting out Salim Ullah was a genuine surprise to me. I think you have a tendency to concoct conspiracies without examining alternative explanations. It is quite possible that Carli, if she did vote for Lutfur, then changed her mind once she saw him at close quarters.
Is your question about holding Carli responsible for any increase or decrease in police problems with licensed premises really serious? Again, I think you are demonstrating naivety over what the licensing committee actually does.
Come on Fighting4EdMiliband.How can you write against Ted Friend’s? now you will be treated as spam, such a yellow journalism, you can continue to write lies against community backed most experienced and dignified councillors like Lutfur Ohid Alibor (probably because they are BME), you can continue to call them fundamentalist/ funded by Curry King etc but can not and should write anything against Josh, Peter, Rachel, Carli and co. I tell you I don’t support any false allegation against no one, if Ted wants to regain uprightness he needs to change before advice others. Ted, don’t be daft if this is your fair view than you will have treat most of your blogs as spam.
Yes, the fundamentalist allegations are just not going away. Even after the dossier and the failure in SBT. On Friday, James Folgate wrote here that the SBT members will be addressing “so called infiltration” but on his Facebook page wrote:
“SPB Labour Party must move to restore its credibility. ….In a transparent and honest way we must openly and honestly debate and decide if IFE membership is incompatible with Labour Party values. Current situation cannot be sustained.
Friday at 4:30pm”
The IFE and accusations of “infiltration”, again!
Perhaps Mr Folgate will be distracted from this by his latest effort at re-engagement with local people: the new ‘LIBERTY OF NORTON FOLGATE COMMUNITY COUNCIL’. (The website is http://www.norton-folgate.co.uk.)
Can IFE members join him in this fiefdom?
Ted, the chair of any party in council and outside has an important role to play in maintaining unity and order. Questioning Cllr Carli H Penman mustn’t be viewed as a conspiracy as she chaired a divisive period during the turbulent leadership of Cllrs Denise Jones (whom she ousted by voting for Lutfur), Lutfur Rahman and more recently Helal Abbas. An explanation must be given by Tower Hamlets Labour Party as to why Cllr Penman replaced and imposed in Cllr Alex Heslop’s safe seat in Bow West. It is quite possible that she lacked the confidence to stand in Bethnal Green South where her visibility (like in Alim’s campaign) was extremely low so she feared losing. It might be that she was behind Cllr Salim Ullah’s deselection and fearing defeat then moved to oust someone respected like Cllr Alex Heslop. On the licensing subject I don’t think the police would deny an accelerated rise in alcohol related retail outlets such as off licenses or clubs and reported crimes such as anti-social behaviour while licenses were granted under Cllr Penman’s 4 year chairmanship of the Licensing Panel which should have reviewed the factors causing nuisances and breaches of licensing objectives/laws. Best to get statistics from police by writing to them on licensing/alcohol related crimes since 2006 and for the new Mayor to then launch an inquiry into Cllr Penman’s gross failures.
I think I’m beginning to detect that other well known internet phenomena (other than the sock puppet) – that of multiple personalities writing in different tones/linguistic styles – all sitting behind one “Nom de plume”
Now I wonder why that is?
F4ED – I’m not a big fan of Carli. In fact, I don’t have much time for her.
However, it’s ludicrous to suggest that the increase in the numbers of licensed establishments is due to her Chairmanship of the Licensing Committee.
If you had any knowledge of the licensing system (and I do, having fought many many battles against licensing applications in my local area and on behalf of other residents groups) you would know that the granting of licenses is the norm. And once granted, it is extremely difficult to revoke a licence.
Cllr HP’s failures are many but her actions in relation to licensing is not one of them.
YCMIU, You just couldn’t make it up!
But you could! And do?
I see lots of jelous and sore losers. The people that are whining are just upset they couldn’t make it to the top. It’s Christmas season so let’s party with friends and family and come back in new year with new ideas. Clearly these ideas are ineffective.
Not one to Praise Labour but I remember CPP on the licensing panel and when the Troxy was up she gave it a really hard time but on appeal the decision was made on some kind of Parking issue perhaps she sat on so many licencing meetings because it was her job
A for Fozil he went to school in the area played as a boy in the area in fact his parents live next door to my 1st cousin who lives in the area he has a business in the area his friends live in the area he is in the area every day he knows the community and they know him I don’t know where his children go to school as they are none of any ones business all that matters is that he knows the problems facing the area and does something about it
@ Carole the community is upset Respect win a by-election it’s really that simple. The success of Respect isn’t their own it’s down to Labours becoming unpopular. Its a little disingenuous to suggest otherwise considering the pounding you got in May 2010. What policy has changed since then?