This is a guest post by Anonymous
We know there will be 204 candidates standing in Tower Hamlets for the 45 seats on the council.
Of these 90 will be from the Labour and Conservatives parties who are contesting every seat in every ward and 44 for Tower Hamlets First, which is, to all intents, the Lutfur Rahman Party. The 45th pro-Rahman candidate will be Anwar Ahmed Khan, who is contesting Bow West as an Independent. There is, in Bow West just one Tower Hamlets First candidate, Jainal Chowdhury.
Anwar Ahmed Khan was elected in Bow West in 2010 as just Anwar Khan. However his expanded name will ensure that he is first on the ballot, two places above his sister in law who was chosen by the Labour party as his successor.
One record that will enter the record books even in the ever changing world of Tower Hamlets will be Cllrs Shahid Ali and Oliur Rahman: they’re standing in their third successive borough election, but for a different party each time; Respect in 2006, Labour in 2010 and Tower Hamlets First in 2014.
Will it be four for the party-hopping duo in 2018? In Tower Hamlets any political label is possible, so watch this space.
The major story of the nominations is the collapse of the Liberal Democrats in a borough they controlled as recently as 1994. In 2002, 2006 and 2010 they contested every seat. This year they are fielding just a single candidate in each of the 20 wards in the borough. In the 28-year period between 1978 and 2006 the Liberals/Liberal Democrats won every local election in Bow. They are now fielding just two candidates for five seats, despite several former Liberal Democrat councillors being resident in the area.
The Greens are fielding 19 candidates in 14 wards, the Trade Union and Socialist Coalition 14 candidates in 13 wards, and Ukip 13 candidates in 13 wards.
Apart from Anwar Ahmed Khan there is a single Independent standing in Mile End, a representative of the Red-Flag Anti corruption group in Bow East and the Peace Party in St Dunstan’s.
In previous years there have often been a range of Independents, there noticeably few this time.
Labour, as the majority party, have had tried their hardest at diversity. However, Tower Hamlets being Tower Hamlets, there are just 15 women as against 30 male nominees. There are 24 Bangladeshi candidates, one Somali (woman), 18 white British and two black British nominees.
Expected to make their marks will be housing expert Rachel Blake and ultra loyalist, who is also known as Mrs Marc Francis.
Mamun Rashid from Shadwell could be interesting. He served as a Respect councillor for a period and was one of their more impressive performers.
Labour have also put up a strong team in St Peter’s against the expected Rahman onslaught, to be led by former Respect leader Abjol Miah who is fighting under his second label in his third different ward.
As expected, the Rahman team is overwhelmingly Bangladeshi. Micky Ambrose, Stephen Beckett, John Cray, Kathy McTasney and Stuart Madewell, along with one or two Somali nominees, are his attempts at diversity. The rest of the ticket is, as said, overwhelmingly Bangladeshi and male. Cllr Rania Khan is standing down, for reasons as yet unknown.
It will be interesting to see the Tower Hamlets First nomination papers. Apart from George P Wood in Bow East, Lillian Collins in Lansbury, Brenda Daley signing for Rofique Ahmed in St Dunstan’s and a friend of Kathy McTasney in Island Gardens all the other proposers have Bangladeshi names.
Micky Ambrose in Bow East is a former footballer, and he also worked in Lutfur’s office earning £25 an hour as “advisor on youth engagement”. He did, however, earn far less than Stephen Beckett, who was collecting in excess of £30,000 in Lutfur’s office.
Micky Ambrose lives in Newham, as does his fellow Bow West Tower Hamlets First candidate, Sabia Kamali. This is an interesting point as Yousuf Khan, Tower Hamlets First in Weavers ward, gives an address in Barking as his home.
There are four other Tower Hamlets First candidates who are known to have addresses outside of the borough but have given addresses within Tower Hamlets. The legal point is that there are four qualifications to stand for election. However, the address on a nomination paper, which is described as home address should be exactly that. It is an illegal practice to use an address as a home address that is not that.
This was what caused Fazlul Haque to be deselected by Labour in 2010 after it was obvious that his actual home was in Ilford. Equally Fozol Miah stood down this year when details of his home address in Barking were regularly circulated including to the police and the Electoral Commission.
Details of four other actual home addresses outside of Tower Hamlets are known to the authorities and other parties. Lutfur, as a solicitor, should have thought about that, as these matters will not go away. In any case, with the broad support that he claims, why could he not nominate 45 genuine local residents as candidates?
The Conservatives, contesting every seat, will concentrate on their stronger areas. They are losing four well known councillors: Cllr Tim Archer, one of the best debaters in the council chamber since 2006 is moving to be closer to his recently widowed mother; Cllr Emma Jones is marrying a serving; Cllr Zara Davis has a new job that requires more work commitments; and Cllr David Snowdon wants to concentrate on other things.
However, the Tories do hope to bring back former councillor Ahmed Hussain, who is standing in Canary Wharf. Previous candidates standing include barrister Neil King in Wapping. There are several other candidates who have asked public questions at the town hall.
In terms of diversity they have eleven BME candidates including Chinese, Sinhalese and Bangladeshi nominees.
The Liberal Democrats, reflecting their withdrawal from the borough, have just two well known candidates, former councillors John Griffiths and Azizur Rahman Khan. An interesting nominee is Alex Dziedzan in Weavers ward. The Liberal Democrats and Ukip are to be congratulated in reaching out to EU citizens as potential candidates. Ferdy North, candidate in Spitalfields and Banglatown, is proposed by one Jemima Khan.
The Greens are fighting widely, with a concentration on wards in the Bethnal Green and Bow constituency. Another Green proposer for the Bethnal Green candidate is Alice Livingstone Boomla, whose doctor parents have both been involved in socialist parties of differing names.
Interestingly, Ukip are not fielding a council candidate in the Shadwell ward where their Mayoral candidate lives. They also found the nomination process perhaps more complicated than they thought. However, they are also to be congratulated in fielding Lubov Zsikhotska, an EU national in Bethnal Green.
Amongst TUSC’s 14 candidates are four candidates from outside of the borough. These have addresses including Basildon and Romford. The Whitechapel candidate who lives in E10, Michael Wrack, is understood to be the son of Matt Wrack, the general secretary of the Fire Brigades Union, previously involved in both Militant and The Socialist Party. Obviously TUSC finds the political situation in Tower Hamlets interesting!
One thing that we know as the count grinds to a halt at The Troxy (who on earth chose that as a venue?) late on Friday night, May 23rd, Tower Hamlets will surprise. There will be recounts, split wards controversy resulting in new faces across the chamber.
In 2006, Respect, reliant on the Bangladeshi vote, was unable to elect a single councillor from amongst their white, SWP element. It is likely that this will be the same this year, hence how few Tower Hamlets First candidates are non Bangladeshi.
A John Biggs win will see any Tower Hamlets First councillors completely isolated. Labour and Biggs will want nothing to do with those that are most likely to be elected.
A Rahman victory will cause enormous tension within the Labour group, in which case sit back and watch the musical chairs.
One final thought: as Respect so famously did in 2006, ‘decapitating’ the Labour leadership including Michael Keith, so too is Tower Hamlets First this time around. They would love to defeat Carlo Gibbs, Amy Whitelock Gibbs and Josh Peck. The battles in those wards is vicious.
Trial by Jeory 
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“A John Biggs win will see any Tower Hamlets First councillors completely isolated. Labour and Biggs will want nothing to do with those that are most likely to be elected.”
Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha.
Have a look at what happened with the Respect councillors post-2006 – most of them worked their way into a Labour cabinet before their term was ended (admittedly under Labour councillor L. Rahman)
If we end up with a hung council and a Biggs mayoralty, watch out for “Tower Hamlets First” councillors worming their way into the Labour Party, in order for Labour to monopolise the chairmanship special allowances.
I said it on the LoveWapping blog, Biggs and Co don’t oppose Lutfur’s rotten methods because they think the methods are wrong, they oppose the rotten methods because they’ve been used by a non-Labour, indeed now anti-Labour, Mayor. If Lutfur were still Labour, it’d all still be ok, the same way it was from 2008 to 2010.
Come an Mayoral election victory (IF…), John Biggs will be A-OK with East End Life, A-OK to grants to “community groups”, and all because it’s DIFFERENT when these corrupt methods are used by the noble virtuous Labour Party – but not OK when they’re deployed by others of course.
I dont think biggs is going to win. Saw the ukip people down roman today everyone was saying there voting for them.
And that, Charley, will be precisely because of the reasons outlined so well by WHS. IF Biggs were to win, he would allow these enemies of East End, ‘Tower Hamlets First’ party members in before Christmas, and we all know that about Labour. That is why UKIP will be the preferred choice for MANY of my friends who are sick to death of what Tower Hamlets has become.
On the door steps in Southern England people are very unhappy with both Labour and Tories. They tell me they will vote UKIP as a protest vote. They say Labour is financially incompetent and that Cameron doesn’t have a clue about anything.
UKIP are not the answer to the country’s problems.
If UKIP were serious about Tower Hamlets they would have stood a full complement of Councillors (or at least enough to establish a majority). This time around Rahman is unlikely to get 50% on the first round. Where will UKIP voters second preferences go?
Pwei34 please don’t be so shameless in your hypocrisy. Labour have 60% Bengali candidates. How does that coincide with the little bit of maths and statistics that you have presented?
UKIP don’t seem keen on carrying on the same policies as Lutfur under a new label. And saying Labour will change X and Y peripheral issues when fundamental problems of unfairness towards traditional east end English folks still exist within your party is disgusting to say the least.
Second preference to Labour makes no sense to me whatsoever. Mine and my friends’ second preference will remain blank! Especially considering publically Labour are still calling UKIP racist, even though they have been expecting white folks to vote in their white candidate, and advising as much too.
Has ‘traditional east end folks’ become a UKIP euphemism for white people? It’s certainly seeming like it…
Old ford what do you mean by traditional eastenders means white people . Your a knob everyone knows paula mcqueen is half black and been married to Nicholas since they were kids. Being a cockney or an eastender aint got nothing to do with the colour if skin and has everything to do with a set of values. Up until the last 25 years there wasnt really division in the eastend if you were brought up here you was considered one of ours. That and knowing what utensils you eat pie aand mash with were the credentials for being in the club! There are a lot of knobs posting on this blog masquerading as Intellectuals.
@Laughing -*”fundamental problems of unfairness towards traditional east end English folks still exist within your party is disgusting to say the least.”*-
In the words of Alfie Bass in the 1967 film “The Fearless Vampire Killers” – “Boy, have you got the wrong Vampire!”. I am not a Labour supporter, I’m a life-long Conservative and an examination of my fairly transparent nom-de-plume would identify me. Labour have indeed an over representation of Bengali men, just as Tower Hamlets First have. Labour’s betrayal of the white working class (see, I can actually say it) in Tower Hamlets lead to the protest vote for the BNP in the 1990’s and underwrites Conservative majorities on the Isle of Dogs and elsewhere ever since. We are not just the Party of the Yuppies and gated-communities, but all communities.
Refusing to use your second preference vote in the Mayoral election is a simple case of denial. A second term for Lutfur and cronies represents a clear and present danger to our Borough. John Biggs may be a tribal politician with the general demeanor of a Bulldog chewing a wasp. But once your own candidate is knocked out, he represents the best chance of a return to relative sanity. Hopefully a larger group of Conservative Councillors will be able to scrutinise a Labour Mayor even more effectively than an Independent. There will not be any return to “Business as Usual” whatever the result.
What evidence have we seen that labour is ready to turn a corner and leave behind it’s divisive and biased politics? What evidence have we seen it is any different from what it’s been for the past 15 years? The party that created Lutfur.
Bringing in Respect party members who can’t speak English is clear cut proof that they are the same Labour pandering to minority needs over English needs. Biggs will make one of these clowns his deputy and continue to take orders from them, trying to satiate their greed and village politics.
Labour-Lutfur legacy must come to an end. Not be allowed to swing from one to another ad Infinitum. I think a strong showing by UKIP will do more than acting as fodder for labour to stroll in. I’m thoroughly disappointed that Conservatives have thrown in the towel this time round. It makes me hope they are replaced by UKIP in the island, as they can’t be bothered to put in the work to take on the Labour-Lutfur hegemony.
Well said laughing
Eastenders are furious with Labour. I dont know anyone planning on giving them a Second pref vote. They created this mess in the first place .
Thank you ‘Anonymous’ for your very interesting and insightful hypothesis of what awaits Tower Hamlets post 22 May.
My fear is that all the efforts to present Luthfur as the Mayor ‘only for the Bengalis’ may backfire. The race-card could work both ways! Most decent folks sense rotten stench regardless of its origin.
Another victory for Lutfur will be extremely appalling and embarrassing … but a landslide victory as that took down Oona would not only leave bruises but some serious internal injuries.
In the current climate less of ‘Bengalis’, ‘Somalis’ and ‘British Blacks’ may be a wise strategy. But you best know about politics so let’s look forward to more of your analysis!
Speaking of Oona King, did you see she was in a spot of bother for comparing the Conservatives to the KKK a while back?
http://order-order.com/2011/03/01/ott-oonas-kkk-cock-up/
Have you ever seen Oona King and Stuart Madewell in the same room?
Have you ever seen oldford1 and Marc Francis in the same room?
And you starter for ten – If all four of them were in a room, would there be (a) three (b) four or (c) five different factions within ten minutes?
With Lutfur Rahman’s style of Communalist politics, it is impossible not to raise the “ethnic origin” issue. Bengali’s make up a bare 32% of the Tower Hamlets population. Male Bengalis a mere 16%. Yet the TH First team is overwhelmingly Bangladeshi and male.
The £40,000 a year for who knows what mayoral advisors in Newham are predominantly white male AND close personal friends of the Mayor. The Mayor’s decision to “invest” £40,000,000 in the Olympic Stadium is beneficial to no one other than his multimillionaire friends who own the club… at least you have opposition members in TH and thereby have some scrutiny of Lutfur’s antics.
There was a mayoral debate on ATN Bangla, a satellite tv channel last night. All of the candidates from the three main parties were there including Biggs. Guess who was missing? They even left an empty chair to point out he didn’t turn up and the others made most of this. I had always assumed Rahman had unequivocal Bangladeshi support but was surprised to see him missing from a debate on a Bengali channel in front of Bengali audience. I missed the first part of the program so not sure if he was ill. Can’t believe he just chose not to turn up. Can anyone explain?
Test
What a brilliant post Ted. You really have to be commended on your eagerness to inform and educate. Thank you.
Has anybody crunched the numbers yet in terms of the different variables – and the vote last time out?
It would be interesting to see a ward map and how many candidates are standing in each
I thought it may have been a credible post until the writer described former Respect councillor Mamun Rashid, now running in Shadwell with Labour, as the most credible performer whilst he was a Respect Councillor?
Ted, I would really love to hear your honest opinion on this one? The guy can’t string a sentence of English together!
Secondly, speaking of addresses, has Mamun Rashid divorced or seperated from his wife and kids? Last I checked, he is happily living in on household with his wife and family at his home address based in Swedenburg Gardens (Whitechapel ward). However according to the Register of voters, his wife and family have their votes registered at a Shadwell address also owned by Mamun? I am sure the writer of your guest post will not enlighten us as to why that could be the case? Already corrupt before he has even got elected. I am sure John Biggs has been served tea, biscuits and Samosas by Mamun’s family at their happily marital home in Whitechapel yet, will John Biggs like to respond or question why they are voting elsewhere in Shadwell???
Expect the EXACT same tactics you hate about Lutfur from Biggs and Labour. Why is someone who speaks no English a Labour candidate at all? What kind of change is that to the status quo?
On the matter of the race of the candidates, UKIP stood three black candidates for this election. Unfortunately one of them is not on the final nominations list because his papers were LOST – yes you read that correctly – we are blaming LBTH Electoral Services. So there are two on the final lists: Bertlyn Springer, who is very well known across the borough, and Pauline McQueen, Nick’s wife.
I have no wish to participate in and hence legitimise the Left’s game of race and identity politics, so I only raise this question because I find it genuinely interesting in trying to understand where the appeal of the different parties lies: Do any of the other parties have black candidates or is it only UKIP?
Respect/THF do, as do Labour. Isn’t Farage the one raising identity politics today?
Respect aren’t standing last time I checked. If you’re implying Lutfur is Respect, the last time I looked there were more ex-Respect candidates in Labour than THF.
Oh come now. Respect and Labour never same party. Harun Miah, currently a Respect Cllr in Shadwell, is standing for THF in Shadwell.
Abjol Miah, ex-Respect leader who stood as Respect candidate in by election couple of years ago is now THF.
That Respect aren’t fielding any candidates at all is the biggest clue they’ve morphed into THF in Tower Hamlets.
Yes, you’ll find ex Respect people in other parties but those parties remain the same.
Are you referring to the forthcoming party election broadcast?
There may be some Tower Hamlets faces in that one!
Great. Who? Is Nick in it?
Don’t know who will be in the final edit, but Kippers from all over London went to the filming, We sent people and they were filmed.
Harun? True, but the Labour candidate standing against him this time was Harun’s Respect running mate in 2010.
Why aren’t Respect fielding any candidates?
Cos they’re a busted flush. And there’s a new game in town.
pwei34 :
“If UKIP were serious about Tower Hamlets they would have stood a full complement of Councillors […]”
Five months ago UKIP had no branch in Tower Hamlets. The inaugural meeting was held on 5th December 2013, consisting of just four people from whom the officers were elected.
We have gone from nothing in the borough to 13 candidates including a serious candidate for mayor, and a professional campaign, in the space of five months.
The tremendous amount of work that we have put in to achieve this shows just how serious we are about Tower Hamlets.
Mark, how many times have you or any other Ukip candidate, including Nick, attended council meetings at the town hall? I don’t think this is everything, of course, but it is one signal of community activism, be it under Ukip’s banner or no party at all.
We have attended several council meetings this year since deciding to stand as candidates. I don’t know how many meetings people have attended prior to the establishment of the branch. I know that one of our candidates has previously sat on a council committee.
Like most people in UKIP I have never been an “activist” for anything until now. Most of us have been busy working in jobs in the real world and running businesses and being contributors to the real economy. We have reluctantly come into this because of the way the country – at national and local level – is being run. I have a successful career in the City. I am not doing this to supplement my income with the £10,000 allowance. I have never solicited taxpayer’s money to run a “community organisation” that may or may not be something that those same taxpayers would support as a legitimate concern.
If I am elected I will certainly be looking to help my electors with their genuine problems, such as the disabled man I met on the doorstep a couple of weeks ago who cannot drive to visit his children at the weekend because people park in the disabled bay outside his house as soon as he moves his car; or the other disabled man who was told by the council that he has to trim the tree outside his building himself.
On an unrelated note, I just looked at the final published list of alterations to the electoral register, and it looks like approx 5500 new voters have been registered and 3000 have been removed since the nominations register was published. Anyone know how this compares to previous elections?
It depends on the names Mark. I know that there has been a complete trawl over the register in Tower Hamlets using DWP and HMRC records to link claims for benefits and tax and VAT payments so many will have gone for those reasons. It would be interesting to see the number of Eastern European names and being in the main conservative and Catholic they may well consider voting for yourselves.
There are some contradictory attitudes towards UKIP across the left. You have drawn that attention of the Guardian columnist Hugh Muir who is asking in today’s paper that you prove you aren’t racist.
The same question could be asked of Mr Muir given his support for some black”leaders” like Louis Farrakhan and the “Rev” Al Sharpton both of whom are known for their anti white and anti semitic statements.
You have also drawn down on your heads the wrath of the Socialist Rapists Party which has started a whole front campaign the details of which I will give you later. As a candidate can’t you start questioning theses prospective members for Ilford and other points east?
Mr Mullah,
No self-respecting Pole, man or woman, is going to vote for UKIP, the anti-EU party. The same will apply to others from the mainland of Europe.
On the doorsteps, outside London but in the south-east, the word is UKIP are racists. Haven’t met anyone from the Indian sub-continent who is voting UKIP.
Curious Cat.
You may be aware of this Mark but have a look at http://www.standuptoukip.org. It is an SWP front and is backed by Love Music Hate Racism the national organiser of which is Martin Smith named by former SWP members as a serial rapist. They are further backed by One Society Many Cultures which is another SWP front. The PO boxes are the same and all the sites do is sell literature the money for which goes to pay SWP full timers.
I see there is still a misunderstanding about the nature of Respect. I gave a link to a site which has the best explanation of Respect and I will do so again. http://www.sarahglynn.net. Click on Multiculturism on the left of the home page and then on the article about Muslims and the left. It is the best explanation I have found.
My take is that the left in the form of the SWP thought that they could use Muslims as the foot soldiers and cannon fodder of a left of Labour mass movement and found that the Bangladeshis ran rings around them. Respect, or rather its collapse, has damaged the loonies for a generation and maybe permanently. I certainly hope so.
Thanks for the links MadMullah.
Thankfully we haven’t come across any of Labour’s street enforcers yet, the worst we have had to deal with was a couple of angry Guardian readers.
Marc.
Guardianistas are always angry. it’s part of the job description!