Someone tweeted me once to say he loved reading about Tower Hamlets because it was like the “Sopranos but with curry”. Well, with the toxic mix of Canary Wharf bankers, a £1billion budget, lucrative regeneration money, the Olympics and former gang members as elected politicians, why expect anything else.
And last night, it came to pass. Labour’s Mile End East councillor Kosru Uddin is currently in custody after allegedly making threats to kill after last night’s full council meeting.
The police were called just after 11.30pm amid screams from the council chamber which had been cleared of the press and public to debate the appointment of a permanent new chief executive. Uddin was allegedly restrained during a row in Bengali with Rania Khan, an independent councillor who supports Mayor Lutfur Rahman.
Police have confirmed the arrest of a 45-year-old man for making “threats to kill”. I understand that both Rania Khan and Mayor Lutfur gave statements to the police.
Kosru was elected in 2010.
By the way, Labour and the Tories voted not to appoint interim chief executive Aman Dalvi to the permanent position because they said the recruitment process had been “flawed”. (Labour’s Abdal Ullah, Ahmed Omer and Marc Francis voted against their party’s motion on this.) Aman returns to his job as regeneration director and the interim CEO position has been offered to environment director Steve Halsey, who, I’m told, is likely to refuse the job in solidarity with Aman.
So if there is no head of paid service, who will pay the salaries?
Tower Hamlets is once again not only in disarray, but also in total chaos.
What a joke.
UPDATE
Kosru was later cleared of all allegations.
Trial by Jeory 
And this on the heels of Uddin’s recent appointment to the Board of The London Thames Gateway Development Corporation. This is from LTGDC’s site:
“Kosru Uddin was appointed to the LTGDC Board on 1st May 2011. He was elected as a Labour Councillor in May 2010 in Mile End East Ward for Tower Hamlets Council and since then has served as a Shadow Cabinet Member for Regeneration and Employment. He was recently appointed to serve as a Shadow Cabinet Member for Safer Communities. Kosru currently sits on LB Tower Hamlet’s Development Committee and is a board member of Poplar HARCA, a leading Registered Social Landlord”.
Perhaps Labour will advise LTGDC of any update they believe is necessary…
Why the surprise? The corrupt election results (at least the last two polls) should tell everyone just what to expect!
Kosrul is a pretty decent guy but he has an extremely short temper he loses it frequently and people wind him up with the intent of causing a scene like this.
@Labour Cllrs well done for re-electing your group leader unopposed. In less than a week the new Chair of council has been embroiled in a public parking scandal [CONTENT REMOVED FOR LEGAL REASONS], three Labour Cllrs break the group whip and now a Cllr has threatened to murder somebody and has been arrested. Excellent judgment and leadership another two more years of this and we’ll be in prime position to oust Lutfur.
Fantastic to see Marc, Abdal and Ahmed displaying some genuine independence last night. Labour group Cllrs are completely and utterly infantilised. If you speak to these people in private they don’t even believe it. Maybe that makes you loyal but allowing other people to tell you how to think makes you a patsy in my opinion.
At least Camden Labour Group knows how to wield a dagger ya’ll need to grow some. David, Carlo or preferably Rachael by Christmas please.
Will Cllr Kosru Uddin be suspended from Labour group pending an internal investigation? After all that’s what their rules say. Or maybe the regional Party need to step in to mop up this mess!? I can’t believe this poor excuse for a ‘safer communities’ lead has just wrecked the group’s stance on violence against women. I didn’t expect this from Cllr Rachel Sanders’s ward colleague. Cllr Saunders must be feeling sick after the work she’s done to protect women.
Remember, he has not been charged with anything.
Do councillors need to be charged with anything to bring an organisation into disrepute in fact?
I thought the argument which is advanced by more than a few is that rather a lot of Councillors in Tower Hamlets have collectively put the Council’s reputation into the “bad joke’ category?
I would have thought that both the Council and/or the Labour Party ought to consider whether getting arrested is enough to count in the context of “bringing the organisation into disrepute” – irrespective of whether or not the said Councillor is charged with anything. Behaviour of councillors in this borough is getting beyond a joke! Somebody needs to exhibit some leadership around here.
Various accounts of what happened last night suggest that maybe the Council’s responsible Officer (that’ll be the one who says things she shouldn’t) needs to send more than one Councillor a reminder of the statement about the Code of Conduct to be observed by Councillors – and what happens if they infringe it.
Assuming he has actually done something, how on earth did you come to conclude that this is ‘violence’ against a woman? Surely it’s violence against a fellow politician (something that I’m sure quite a few of us think of when reading the latest shenanigans). Rania Khan can more than give it back I’m sure.
East London deserves better than this…
The incident bears unfortunate similarities with this:
http://www.parliament.uk/edm/1997-98/375
Except in this case, the victim was a woman.
I was told by one male Labour councillor after the meeting back in January that another (Independent) councillor had uttered an implied death threat to him in the chamber at a previous meeting The Labour councillor told me specifically saying that he was warned to “expect a knock” – a sinister threat implying that someone would knock on his door in the ‘East End’ fashion, gun in hand… if I recall correctly the councillor who was alleged to have made this menacing remark is related by marriage to one of the Khan’s…
Rania likes to present herself as this little innocent… but anyone who has seen this pugnacious femme fatale in action knows how far that is far from the truth.
I have said before and I will say it again that the time has come for this local authority to be suspended and administered remotely Whitehall. Sod local democracy – it has become a sham. Why should we pay our council tax to it? After the persistent electoral abuse, the refusal to of the mayor to account for his actions, nepotism, the threats and now violence in the chamber itself as well as the bigoted intimidation of councillors like Peter Golds…this school-yard council is an odious disgrace that has brought itself so frequently into disrepute it no longer has any refute left to diss.
It is well beyond being “a joke”.
I do so agree with James F about suspension and ‘special measures’ if there mechanisms for doing so. I’ve been an activist in various areas [housing and leasehold matters mainly] and as such have made many formal complaints and many FOI requests.
The complaints are tossed around, forgotten or rejected because they are often ‘investigated’ by the same line management that the complaint concerns. The FOI requests [which I make via whatdotheyknow.com so everyone can see the results] are often avoided until after deadline, answered with an elegant minimalism [I’m being ironic], blocked by internal review and then forgotten. There are clearly no checks and balances at any level and certainly, see above, no examples being set.
On top of this, we have a seedy, intellectually dishonest and costly [this in a poor borough] culture of self-congratulation and north-Korean style propaganda both in the borough and its ALMO THH.
As Cromwell [probably] said: You have sat too long for any good you have been doing lately … Depart, I say; and let us have done with you. In the name of God, go!
Ted was first out of the blocks (as per usual) with this story (I’m just limbering up with the Olympic metaphors) but the Evening Standard seems to have put some effort into their story about the incident – ‘Death threat’ at London 2012 Olympics borough council meeting
It’s one of today’s lead stories in the Evening Standard – and ranks #4 for most commented story – but seems to have mysteriously lost its comments section!
Do you think maybe Isobella ‘think before you say anything’ Freeman has been having a word with the paper’s Editor?
[…] boroughs will therefore spend the run up to the Olympics without any head of paid service. A local commentator‘s comment on this situation was: Tower Hamlets is once again not only in disarray, but also […]
Kosru Uddin was released on bail to report back to the police in mid June when a decision will be made to close the case or charge him. Investigations will proceed in the interim.
Lock up your daughters!
[…] Trial by Jeory on the Labour councillor who threatened to kill a female independent in a Tower Hamlets council meeting. Also East London Lines. […]
Mr Uddin is in deep trouble at JCP where DWP have employed him as a higher executive officer (HEO). A family member called Thursday morning to say he was unwell and unable to get to work. Later his absence (due to arrest and custody for threatening to kill a young woman) was confirmed on the front page of the Evening Standard. Not only are the allegations a breach of civil service standards, they have caused his colleagues to question his honesty and appropriateness for the job. The civil service usually acts quickly to avoid being brought in disrepute especially by someone who allegedly attacks women. Where is the Minister responsible?
I went to hanbury street from 2pm and till 10 pm, I had counted 27 groups of people, totaling 238 people in total, who came to brick lane to take photos of the crane in hanbury street. They came for that reason only. They were disgusted at the vandalism of such great art. These are people who come all over the world to brick lane. These are the same people who spend money in this area. They won’t be coming back and they will tell all their friends on face book and twitter and soforth. Not to waste their time traveling to this area. What is this cockroach mayor thinking of. Destroying great art works that bring revenue and tourists to this area. Curry festival my ass. Curry houses have lost out on a art work that brings them revenue. Stamp out this cockroach.
Cllr kosru works for the department of work and pension, I wonder if they will suspend him as they have a high ethic and code of conduct. Whatever the case, I hear Cllr kosru is trying to reach a settlement with Cllr Rania by involving mediators. She may not agree but it shows Cllr kosru is very worried indeed about his future
I think it is desperately unfair. I am told that Cllr. Lutfa Begum insulted the memory of Kosru’s recently deceased mother and this is why he lost his temper. It takes two to fight.
I was told the same – Lutfa apparantly told him to have an incestuous relation with his deceased mother… obviously put in a more direct fashion.
A decent mitigating circumstance I think.
They should translate and transcribe precisely what was said by all three and if inappropriate they should suspend them all!
That’s bollocks. Lutfa Begum only got involved after he’d attacked Rania and simply shouted ‘What would your mother say?’
Yes, I agree, the whole exchange should be published, but I bet there’s no neutral record of it, just hearsay. Whether there’s mitigation, those who choose public office and service, need to observe certain standards of behaviour though. We don’t want our MPs constantly buying houses for their ducks with public monies, as a recent example.
But I have an even better idea related to this subject, all official LBTH business, debate, phone answering, posters-of-dear-one, you-name-it, to be conducted/written in English, since it’s one of the official languages of the realm [conducting LBTH business in Welsh might have some advantages, but…] and ensures that all groups and ethnicities present in the borough can understand and participate. There’s an immediate spin-off in improved literacy and employability too. I’m dreaming aren’t I, please pinch me?
The proceedings ARE definitely audio recorded. I know this as a fact. The totally impartial legal officer is, I believe, the custodian of the audio recordings. If there is the political will from the opposition they could be obtained. We need to know who said what, this hearsay is not fair- it’s a public forum and tax payers have a right to know!
Being on the internet transmission of all cabinet meetings and all this would be sorted if happened again of who said what first and who retorted in offensive ways etc…. which is bound to!
It’s pathetic if that’s his excuse anyway. Do you think an MP in the commons who’d attacked a woman would turn around and say ‘but she cussed my mum!’
This is local government – not a schoolyard
If she told me to f**k my mum, then I would yes, seeming as my mum is deceased as well.
But as you say, she didn’t say that, so publishing audio records/YouTube streaming would show who the ‘agent provocateur’ was.
And if you consider verbals threats as attacking, I would hate to think what you would consider a physical attack.
Rania ain’t no shrinking violet ‘bro’ – I believe in if you gonna’ goad someone, be ready for the outcome, cllr or no cllr
As a civil servant should he be a councillor in the area where he works?
Red Tapir, He is a civil Servant, not sure he works in the area, as are many of our other councillors who are civil servants in other areas, therefore not politically restrained.
After speaking with a lot of people from the Mile end East ward, especially the Burdette estate, people seeem to be very fond of Cllr Kosru, they share a deep sympathy with Kosru and his family.
Its a shame that Independent Cllrs, stir up trouble and divide the community. The same divisions they pray will get them elected again.
Responding to a number of points
1) The official language of public business in this country is English. Any conduct of official business which is conducted in a language other than English EXCLUDES those who only speak English. That matters.
2) If the incident occurred in Part 2 of the Agenda (after the public and press have been excluded) then it would not be broadcast even if the proceedings of Part 1 were recorded and broadcast.
3) If the Council has agreed to the audio recording of all proceedings then this incident will provide it with scope to learn how well the recording worked for the purposes of identifying what happened when and who said what – in all languages used.
4) If civil servants, other government officers and teachers couldn’t be councillors we’d have an awful lot of vacancies around the UK! There is however a bar on officers above a certain pay grade from being involved.
5) It’s usually normal for councillors to hold office in one borough and work for another local authority
6) Central government is not local government. The Department of Work and Pensions is not part of this Council. As such there is no conflict of interest – except in relation to any specifics affecting the DWP (eg newspaper coverage?)
7) All government departments and local authorities have Codes of Practice for their employees. These identify the reasons why an officer can be disciplined, suspended and/or their employment terminated.
– It was Cllr’s Uddin’s responsibility for ensuring his employer was informed of the reason he was unable to come to work. Telling a lie to his employer is almost certain to put Cllr Uddin on a disciplinary. Somebody may have told the lie on his behalf – but he or she certainly didn’t help matters.
– Bringing your employer into disrepute can be a sackable offence – but it tends to depend on what happened and how many people got to hear about it. The front page of the ELA and an inside page of the Evening Standard will not have helped his case.
– Violence within the workplace is normally a very serious offence within ANY code of conduct. Any employee being violent in the workplace is normally always suspended with immediate effect. All accusations of violence must ALWAYS be followed up by an immediate investigation and a disciplinary hearing. Violence is also one of the ways in which you can bring an employer into disrepute. The employer MUST be seen to act in the best interests of all those within the workplace and there must be no risk that violence ever erupts – hence why it is almost always a sackable offence.
– The Council also has a Code of Conduct for all members. This Councillor (and possibly others) has almost certainly breached it if there is no dispute that violence was involved.
– Political Parties also have Codes of Conduct for their members and normally also take a very dim view of all those whose behaviour has caused serious concern. Cllr Peck’s recent statements about the standards of behaviour expected of councillors are relevant.
I think it’s almost certain that Cllr Uddin risks having his behaviour scrutinised by:
* The Metropolitan Police
* The Courts
* His employer – The Department of Works and Pensions
* Tower Hamlets Council
* Tower Hamlets Labour Party
* The Labour Party
This one looks like it’s going to run and run……….
Let’s hope both Cllr Uddin and other Tower Hamlets Councillors learn an important lesson from this very sorry incident.