The Tower Hamlets Labour group has just released the following press release (I’m waiting for a statement from the council):
Labour councillors are pressing for an investigation after a break-in attempt on the Leader of the Labour Group’s office last month after the lock was found jammed following an attempt to force the door.
The incident occurred over the weekend of the 9th and 10th March, only days after the Council’s Budget was amended by Labour councillors. Had access been gained many of the Labour Leader’s confidential documents would have been accessible, including budget plans and constituent casework.
The office is located on the 1st Floor of the Town Hall in an area restricted to the Mayor and councillors and their staff as well as senior Council officers raising concerns that whoever attempted to access the office may also have managed to gain access to a restricted area on the 1st floor.
Leader of the Labour Group, Cllr Joshua Peck, said: “I have written to the Council’s Chief Officer to request that a full investigation is undertaken and that the attempted break in is reported to the police.
“This is not the first time politicians’ offices have seen break-in attempts. The Council must take steps to protect councillors’ offices and make sure nobody has access who shouldn’t.”
UPDATE, April 3…5.20pm
The council has just told me there is no CCTV in that part of the town hall and that there is no “conclusive evidence” of a break-in. As such, they say the police will not be called. Here’s the council’s statement:
“An investigation has been completed and no conclusive evidence was found to confirm that a break-in had been attempted. The door was unopened but the lock could not be used and has now been replaced. We are currently considering options as to how security, in that particular part of the building, might be improved.”
This is becoming a familiar refrain!
Trial by Jeory 
There’s a lot between the lines here. I guess it isn’t being spelled out for a reason …
Weird. Anyone else would call the police. Josh writes a letter.
This is cheap.
The whole ‘restricted area’ line is clearly intended to imply that the Mayor or a councillor tried to break in.
Does anyone really believe that the Mayor, or ANY ONE of the 51 councillors, would actually be STUPID enough to do that? Really?
I’m pretty sure the whole place is covered in CCTV anyway.
I hope Josh didn’t gleefully fire this off without talking to colleagues … it will be a bit embarrassing if the CCTV shows some poor old Labour group councillor who forgot their pass on going in to catch up on some casework at the weekend.
(The Press Release is also inaccurate: Josh doesn’t have an office. There’s a big Labour group room with half a dozen computers, and then a little office where the Political Assistant, David Courcoux, sits.)
Councillors being “stupid”*? Nah, no one would believe that.
*thinks of taxis.
We had councillors threatening to kill one another in the council chamber, councillors claiming housing benefit under false names for council homes they were subletting, and councillors with forty people all living in their front room who were all voting for them in proxy votes… stupid? Downright criminal.
The whole thing is totally and utterly absurd.
Stealing the budget documents AFTER the budget? What?
Anyway, the Labour group is so hopelessly divided they’d never in a million years keep anything sensitive in there.
Dan in fairness to Josh, I wouldn’t call the police if it was my workplace -I’d probably report it to “the powers that be” or get internally disciplined if I did call the police myself! Obviously it isn’t Josh’s workplace, but neither is it his home. I would have thought LBTH security would deal with it in the first place and then, if necessary, get the police involved.
On a similar theme, regarding confidentiality and privacy, I’ve noticed that all the toriy councillors use @gmail.com email addresses rather than the @towerhamlets.gov.uk ones (according to the EEL councilors listings). Is this because they suspect the council emails aren’t secure?
It may also be a matter of not wanting to use council facilities for party political activities. Also there is a potential for FOI disclosures if councillor email is on a council IT system.
Westminster council decided in 2006 that councillors should not have an email inbox but instead use private email accounts to receive mail.
Thanks David. We live and learn. (Well some of us anyway).
LMAO, the lock jams and councillors freak out that they’re being robbed, hey it happens to all of us sometimes, doesn’t mean someone was trying to force entry. chill people! what are they hiding in there anyway that’s so special? Some people are such drama queens….time to calm that hyperactive imagination; plotting less deep into the night and sleeping would help!
They should do what they were elected to do: work for their residents instead of writing fairy tales. did you by any chance check any of these cllrs timesheets? some haven’t filled any for years!
BREAKING NEWS! They have found the CCTV footag of the break-in. The Mayor and Cllr Oli are seen leaving Josh’s office with a pencil sharpener, a box of staples and Josh’s old underpants which he keeps in his bottom draws.
The Mayor’s gone from controlling the Met Police to breaking and entering in a week.
Comment of the week I think 🙂
Given his relentless focus on who fills in (non-statutory) timesheets, I’ll take it Shumi is Oli; given his clear knowledge of the layout of the Town Hall I’ll take it Oldford1 is Jedward, still astroturfing at the taxpayers’ expense and not studying at Selwyn…
This Labour party is begining to sound like Conservitives Peter Golds, a person who cries ‘wolf’ everytime
Who was responsible for reporting Rob Marchant to the police for tweeting that he’d shoot himself if Lutfur was readmitted to the Labour party?
“An investigation has been completed and no conclusive evidence was found to confirm that a break-in had been attempted. The door was unopened but the lock could not be used and has now been replaced. We are currently considering options as to how security, in that particular part of the building, might be improved.”
In other words there was no break-in! So Mr Peck with the help of TrialbyJeory have just traduced the good reputation of the Mayor and his colleagues.
Yeah. There was no evidence of vote-rigging either. So I’m quite sure that all is well in the sweet-smelling world of Tower Hamlets politics.
Let me explain Tim.
Allegations + investigation = conclusion. Conclusion = no case to answer
THEREFORE allegation NOT True.
Emphatic mathematical evidence. So stop going on about it!
So you’re not a mathematician then, Imran?
I’ve no idea whether there was a break-in or not, but the fact there was no “conclusive evidence” does not mean the allegation is emphatically untrue.
Have a look at the origins of Operation Weeting, Savile, Hillsborough and many other cases of failed investigations if you want emphatic evidence that the second part my previous sentence is true.
Funny – I saw Imran’s comment as being a dry and witty observation on the self-delusion of certain members of the LBTH political community. Self-delusion which is commented on here:
https://trialbyjeory.wordpress.com/2013/03/27/election-fraud-ostriches-spotted-in-tower-hamlets/
I mean, only a complete idiot would ever think that these allegations were “NOT true”, surely?
I have a first class honors from the London School of Mathematistics in Hanbury street Ted. So don’t question my mathematistical intelligence.
Not sure this is on the level of Savile or Hilsborough though. Even a great journalist like you couldn’t couldn’t stretch that far.
@Tim, I’m nice but not dim!
Imran I’m sure that despite your rhetorical flourish you do realise that it isn’t that simple. Not enough evidence to prosecute isn’t even close to being the same as not true. There’s something called a burden of proof.
The ‘no case to answer’ came from the Dear Leader’s own press release rather than the police statement anyway, so you’re somewhat overstating the case.
Trying to boil the criminal justice system into an equation is difficult enough, even without having your facts completely wrong.
So are you advocating altering/doing away with the burden of proof?
I always thought that actually needing evidence to substantiate allegations was quite a good quirk of the British justice system…funny that
No I’m just saying that running around shouting ‘innocent’ and ‘it’s not true’ is not factually correct. That isn’t what they said. I believe the statement never used the words ‘no case to answer’, that was the Dear Leader. As any first year law student will tell you, ‘not guilty’ is not the same as ‘innocent’.
Reblogged this on Sundial Centre Shipton Street.
//the fact there was no “conclusive evidence” does not mean the allegation is emphatically untrue.
Have a look at the origins of Operation Weeting, Savile, Hillsborough and many other cases of failed investigations if you want emphatic evidence that the second part my previous sentence is true//
TrialbyJeory the investigation has revealed there was no concusive evidence to suggest an attempted break-in. What evidence do you have that there has been a cover up or are you just making wild allegations again? and will you be passing evidence of a cover up to the police etc?
TrialbyJeoy I think your on a whitch hunt against the Mayor
All people in this country are innocent until proven guilty but according to TialbyJeory your guilty until proven innocent if your a muslim.
Now, now Kevin. What’s being a Muslim go to do with anything here?
I can see we have emphatic and conclusive evidence that you can’t read properly. For you failed to spot the first part of the sentence you quoted:
— I’ve no idea whether there was a break-in or not —-.
Now go away and troll somewhere else–but best not do it while doing your job at Tower Hamlets Council, which is where your comment originates.
So you check the IP addresses of everyone? Or just people you don’t agree with? Not good journalism Ted. If you want a diverse set of opinions let people speak. Don’t try and shut them up by comments like these. Very poor!
Only those who provide fake email addresses. And who play the race card gratuitously.
By all means debate, but do please try to be at least a bit sensible.
(And there are plenty of “diverse” opinions that I actually block, for v good reason.)
Do you suppose Kevin’s his real name? I suspect a Kevin employed by the council might be proficient in English…