Cllr Rabina Khan, Lutfur Rahman’s cabinet member for housing, was the latest to draw the short straw for media appearances yesterday.
Lutfur himself only agrees to Panorama interviews these days.
His deputy, Oli Rahman, is considered, er, a little too bold for these occasions, so it was left to Rabina, who has previously worked for the BBC, to defend the council after the PwC report yesterday.
She has ambitions to become the Tower Hamlets First MP for Bethnal Green and Bow.
She gave the interview to BBC London News last night while standing in the foyer of the town hall in Mulberry Place. One person who witnessed it said she was being coached on what to say (during the interview itself) by the council’s head of communications, Takki Sulaiman.
I’m told he was waving at her like a disoriented semaphore operator. “No evidence of fraud,” was what he apparently mouthed at her repeatedly.
I think he may have put her off. Something did. It was a bit of a car crash. She should have been more natural.
The interview is about seven minutes in here.
(The clip is only available until 6.30pm tonight, so someone may want to put it on YouTube and send me link to save it for posterity.)
Trial by Jeory 