It seems to be buried on the website for “Mayor Lutfur Rahman” (home page here) but it is there. This:
Full text here:
Lutfur Rahman will be appealing the judgment made against him at last Thursday’s election court. He continues to reject all claims of wrongdoing and we hold that the integrity of the court system was marred by the bias, slurs and factual inaccuracies in the election judgment. There is a petition in his defence available here for those who wish to sign and a rally will be held on Thursday.
Tower Hamlets First councillors reject the election court’s claims that we are nothing more than a ‘one man band.’ We support Lutfur Rahman as a party because he has led in delivering record numbers of social and affordable homes, investing in our young people with maintenance allowances and university grants and standing up to Tory and Labour austerity. We support former Councillor Alibor Choudhury because of his record as Cabinet Member for Resources of doing the hard work needed to make these policies happen.
As such we will continue to serve residents. Whilst Lutfur Rahman appeals, Councillor Oli Rahman has stepped in as acting mayor and will be working to ensure that top quality Council services continue to be accessible to all residents. While other parties obsess over the politics of the past, securing decent jobs, fair housing and excellent support services for our borough will continue to remain our top priority.
We will also be deciding this week on a candidate to endorse in the forthcoming mayoral election and election for Stepney Ward, and we will make that decision based on who we believe is best placed to deliver stronger communities and a fairer future in Tower Hamlets.
At least they describe Alibor as a “former councillor”.
The grounds for his judicial review are not yet known. I’m not a lawyer but those who are say Richard Mawrey’s judgment looks “appeal proof”. For example, here is the view of legal expert David Allen Green who tweets as Jack of Kent:
@TedJeory It was an unorthodox judgment in style; but the legal substance was sound. And Rahman cannot appeal on the factual findings.
— Jack of Kent (@JackofKent) April 28, 2015
More of this to come. At some point we will also no doubt find out who has been paying Lutfur’s hefty bills.
In the meantime, a quick update on the politics of Tower Hamlets First. Acting mayor Oli Rahman and Rabina Khan appear to be the frontrunners.
And it is Lutfur himself who will decide. He is, according to sources, “taking soundings from leaders of community groups”. Which groups these are have not been specified, but one will certainly be the Islamic Forum Europe. Anyone who underestimates the influence the IFE has on these things is mistaken.
Oli is not IFE. And neither actually is Rabina. However, she is helped in this respect by the position of her husband, Cllr Aminur Khan, who is. She is known to disagree with the IFE on many things and I’d be surprised if this hasn’t created lively conversations around the Khans’ dining table.
Rabina is seen by a section of younger Bengalis as bright, articulate and refreshing. She apparently knows how to charm on the doorstep, how to enter people’s homes and “have a cup of tea in the kitchen”, as someone put it to me last night. I suspect that were she to be selected there would be many in Labour’s camp who would say they were supporting John Biggs but who would not cast their vote for him.
But would she be the puppet that Lutfur would want while he fights to clear his name, or even after he fails in that task? What real experience does she have in running a large organisation? I’ve always thought her quite good in the council chamber when reading a prepared script. However, I’ve not seen too much evidence that she’s good at thinking on her feet. But I may be wrong.
As for Oli, he’s apparently loving his new role. He’s been having regular meetings with the two Government Commissioners and promising to work closely with them. I’m told they’ve respected him for that. It’s not something that Lutfur did. In fact, he would be a change from Lutfur in other respects. He’d scrap the mayoral car and chauffeur for a start and take public transport (and not cabs as he used to do…). He would also only hire mayoral advisers where “absolutely necessary”.
But while he’s enjoying the role, it’s not clear for how much longer he can carry on doing it. The executive mayoral role is full time and I’m told that Whitehall rules forbid civil servants from carrying out that job. Oli, of course, is a civil servant with the DWP. And the DWP has apparently written to him to say that Eric Pickles’s DCLG has highlighted this little headache.
Oli is enlisting the help of Unison, so watch this space, but it is possible that Oli may have to vacate his acting mayor role before the mayoral by election in which case someone else may have to step up.
Dropping like flies.
Meanwhile, as you all know, Andy Erlam has decided to stand. If the Tories choose Peter Golds, among the main contenders it will be one British Bangladeshi versus three or four white men. The divisions will no doubt continue.
I wish they’d all just hammer out a rainbow coalition deal.
Trial by Jeory 
I think:
1) somebody should explain to Oli Rahman what “breach of employment contract” means and why he would have no recourse at an Industrial Tribunal.
2) Tower Hamlets First need to be reminded that in the Mayoral Election that never happened, the population of Tower Hamlets did NOT elect a party! I still fail to understand on what legal basis Oil Rahman thinks he can take over the role of Acting Mayor. Maybe Eric Pickles and the DCLG could reflect on that one as well?
3) IF (and it’s a big IF) Rabina Khan ever got her hands on the Mayoralty she wouldn’t ever give it back without a fight!
On the other hand she might stand a good chance of being a Cabinet Member in any future Rainbow Coalition Cabinet if she plays her cards right – and that in turn might lead to a longer and more productive political career.
At some point, somebody is going to identify the legal reason why you can’t have a website which proclaims you to be a Mayor when you’re not!
Seems likely that somebody might already have made that point re the ex-Mayor’s Twitter account – which was vacated
– and then instantly repopulated by a little cutie
Check out https://twitter.com/MayorLutfur a.k.a. @MayorLutfur – and the tweets in the footnote of the Mayor Rahman website!
Rabina’s husband is not IFE.
Given the crap thats likely to be thrown at her in the coming weeks, it would be decent of you not to add another layer.
I’ve read the judgement once. Now I am studying parts of it.
Son of Labour has several findings against him. If he manages to remove or cancel or void most of those findings, there is still the problem for him in that just one of the findings is sufficient to remove him from office and prevent his being a candidate for 5(?) years.
I suggest his chance of appealing is dubious because of lack of merit (so will have go to to the Appeal Court) and because the judgement was based on facts which he can not overturn with ease. Even if he were to overturn all but one of the findings against him, that remaining one is sufficient to condemn him.
Then there is his problem with the SRA (Solicitors Regulation Authority).
An additional problem is, if the police exert themselves, possible criminal enquiries, bail, charging and all the usual nightmare for the suspected criminal. If found guilty by a crown court jail for at least 2 years is inevitable.
If the Law of England had not been so bad, all this could have been stopped years ago and Mr Rahman would not now be in deep s****.
Curious Cat.
Pathetic little runt.
Ted, as for your worry that it will be four white men v a Bengali and what-have-you; the solution to this is simple, and that is for that ranting cretin Oli Rahman to get elected, and for the Secretary of State for Communities & Local Government, whether it be Hilary Benn or Pickles, to come to the conclusion that the citizens of Tower Hamlets cannot be trusted with their Mayoral elections, and to send in the Commissioners to do the whole job.
If you cannot see the truth in this, tough, anyone with any sense can see what is going on here. Mawrey has said the Bengali community has been subverted into a victimhood complex that manifests itself in aggressive politics, and that is right, and it shouldn’t be tolerated any more.
From your comments, you are saying that if Oli gets elected, the white community is struggling to get their votes to count against the victimised Bengali community and their aggressive politics. Therefore, Pickles should turn dictator and exercise aggressive politics in TH on behalf of the white people.
What victimised Bengali community? You have a Bengali community that constitutes 35% of the population, 60% of the councillors, 100% of the cabinet. But the Bengali cabinet were all elected by corrupt practices – mobbing polling stations, and convincing as many Bengalis as possible
By now it looks like Rabina rather than Oli as the THF Mayoral candidate, and it looks like the Commissioners have already been given power to take over all executive functions.
Let me put in simple terms for you, ‘Justice (sic) for TH’ – neither Rabina nor Oli are fit to run Tower Hamlets, even if the Bengalis are frightened into voting for them and they get elected. There is a higher power than the Mayor of Tower Hamlets (something Lutfur often forgot), and that higher power is not God but the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government. If Rabina or Oli – both of whom were elected by corrupt practices last year, that has been proven – are eleced Mayor, tough s***, yes Pickles should turn dictator, and if you don’t like it, tough.
THF removed from Electoral Commission’s register of political parties. The walls cave in.
http://www.electoralcommission.org.uk/i-am-a/journalist/electoral-commission-media-centre/news-releases-corporate/media-statement-on-removal-of-tower-hamlets-first-from-the-electoral-commissions-register-of-political-parties
The shameful thing there Ted is that THF was ever listed as a political party by the electoral commission in the first place.
Why is it only the Bengali community that’s been victimised? Some of them were complicit with Lutfur who discriminated against the white community.
Pathetic little runt? I thought I’d read a typo. Then I realised the first letter of the more fitting word is nowhere near the ‘r’.
There he goes citing hate crime and racism again… No doubt next he’ll be going to the European Court if Human Rights, crying stitch up.
I particularly agreed with the judgement which stated that Lutfur’s actions only fueled division and racial tension in Tower Hamlets. He and his rotten stinking party, and their supporters should be tried for hate crimes!
I still don’t know why if the mayoral election had fraud, the entire elections can’t be scrapped and re-run? If there were ground to boot this crook out, then surely we can apply the same logic and declare the whole fiasco null and void?
Let’s please expedite criminal proceedings and make sure these crooks are held to account.
Let’s please expedite criminal proceedings and make sure these crooks are held to account.
That depends entirely on whether the often poor performing Met Police can shake-off their laziness and start behaving like real policemen. I’m sure some of them actually supported the Mayor’s actions.
CC.
I certainly don’t know enough law around the finer points of Appeals and Judicial Reviews – but maybe somebody who does could answer the following questions
1) An Appeal – in law – is different to a Judicial Review – yes?
2) If the ex-Mayor is NOT using the words “Judicial Review”, can we reasonably assume that he or his legal team have been unable to find any point of law on which they can rely in order to seek a Judicial Review?
3) Would the people who oversee a Judicial Review allow a Judicial Review to proceed if there was only a prospect of overturning one of the guilty findings (i.e. the result would be the same if all the others remained in place ie the ex-Mayor would still be removed from office and would still be banned from standing for public office)?
4) My understanding is that there is no Appeal from an Election Court. However I am replying on Wikipedia for this statement http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Election_court#Appeal
The references are to:
(17) Representation of the People Act 1983 official text at legislation.gov.uk Representation of the People Act 1983 official text at legislation.gov.uk
(18) “R on the application of Woolas v The Parliamentary Election Court and others (2010) EWHC 3169 (Admin)”. British and Irish Legal Information Institute. 3 December 2010. Retrieved 3 December 2010
So does that mean the ex-Mayor – or his representatives – might be saying he is going to appeal – but that, in fact and in law, he is unable to do so except via a Judicial Review on a point of law?
See (2) above.
BTW – I note that The Guardian is reporting the following on its letters page “Lutfur Rahman committed corrupt and illegal practices – this ruling was correct”
http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2015/apr/28/lutfur-rahman-ruling-correct
See http://law.slough.info/law44/law44.php (Birmingham postal voting fraud) links at bottom of the page. There were 2 successful appeals. One mistaken identity, the other a legal technicality.
Everyone can appeal. Often permission is required from the relevant court. If permission is refused one can go up a level and ask to appeal to them.
There you lady’s and gent’s our ex mayor even still self proclaimed might be thinking to funding his legal cost by suing us all.
About as much chance of his appeal and as for a session to the court of appeal it wouldn’t get past the paper review stage.
You don’t know.
It depends on the basis of his appeal. Premature to reject what we don’t yet know.
CC.
Meanwhile the useless meic sullivan gould continues to haunt the corridors of the town hall. Remember this man? He was the one that said he could find no wrongdoing and Lutfur was a good man really
Total waste of space, should be forced out for good
There will be no appeal. They will not be granted leave anyway we will have a new Mayor by then and Tower Hamlets will have moved on and Lutfur is already old news
Tower Hamlets joke:
Knock knock
Who’s there?
Lutfur Rahman!
Lutfur Rahman who?
That’s the world of rotten, stinking, cheating Tower Hanlets first politics for you!
I think your last sentence is the most telling:
For me, one of the conclusions of this is that elected mayors can be incredibly divisive in rainbow boroughs. That’s most of East London, but I’m thinking specifically about the future of Newham as well.
Absolutely spot on Hugh.
If ‘the other parties’ put up individual candidates and a THF candidate gets in then it will reflect very badly indeed upon them all. That they are even considering individual candidates is concerning me.
For me, the conclusion about the whole Mayoral model for local government is that it’s a very high stakes and risky approach. At the end of the day it all depends on the individual.
I cannot think of any reason why the residents and community of any local authority should ever be placed in a situation where the individual “elected” to be Mayor should be found guilty of corruption, dishonesty and misuse of public money.
I would want a system in places which avoids that sort of outcome at all costs.
I’d like to be in a position come June to vote for somebody who will, as Mayor, run the Council with an approach which is as close as possible to a normal Council.
Here here
I totally agree with you
But to have a normal council especially in tower hamlets to provide good quality services its going to be hard and going to require some real work to overcome a number of challenges for any future mayor or grouping taking power
Firstly you need a stable place of business and that means having a permanent council owned Town Hall, not one rented or leased at ever increasing expense and I may add fit for purpose and easily accessible to all in the Borough.
Two, The councils and in particular the former Mayors waste strategy if it can be called that, the cleansing contract one of the largest value contracts to be tendered by the authority. if you want clean streets and orderly and cost effective rubbish collection you need this to have a depot located in the Borough or very very close to it.
The current waste contract does not provide this with the main depot at Leamouth Road to be disposed of and tenderers to this 15 year contract to provide their own, presumably out in Essex at Rainham and the like. Not very practical for ensuring the dust carts arrive on time if anyone has travelled the A13 in the morning and evening rush hours.
Also much is crowed about the mayor providing much needed social and affordable housing when this is being provided by the arms length housing companies i.e. Harca, THCH, well done Mr Stride and Mr Tyrell, and the like. Not to mention the section 106 social housing delivered on all private housing schemes at 35% of all habitable rooms on these developments. Hardly this former mayors inspired policy but a legacy of the former administrations and the luck of having a borough with such desirable locations to developers. I don’t think you would get the number of units provided by this in Salford. But this wont last forever at these rates as the land available for this is rapidly diminishing. So this in the future will become a much bigger issue than it is now, if those on the current waiting list can believe that.
Likewise the additional funds to support/ subsides services and grants to mainly small community organisations from these developer payment’s will dry up with the consequential funding and support gap to these areas.
These are only a fragment of the challenges facing the current and future politicos in tower hamlets not to mention the next round of local authority funding cuts that will be imposed in some form no matter who is elected on May 7’th to run the country
My goodness the way you write changes with every comment you leave!
are you using a pseudonym for a group? Or are you’re being fed stuff to say?
Yes it does change dependent on how much time I have as I’m busy with work. Am I working with a group or being briefed? Not at all I can assure you as I informed you before i do have a reasonable grasp f the issues and problems and am well known so hence the using a pseudonym
Ted, you need to correct Oli’s surname in the title of the article.
Why bother, he probably can’t read properly anyway, innit.
While the focus is on the next Mayoral Election let’s give some prominence to what seems to me to be a very new Page on the Electoral Commission website – as highlighted by LoveWapping yesterday.
The page “Don’t Stand for Electoral Fraud” https://crimestoppers-uk.org/get-involved/our-campaigns/national-campaigns/electoral-fraud/ covers the following
Wow. That’s genuinely astonishing.
The Electoral Commission, a real money-wasting QUANGO, copied it from Mawrey’s entertaining and educative judgement
The Electoral Commission didn’t possess sufficient brain cells to think of these things themselves.
============================
Want to learn more about electoral fraud? Visit the Electoral Commission website.
Just visit the London Borough of Tower Hamlets for the most up-to-date info.
Curious Cat.
Did we think he would go quietly, no. A drowning man looking for a lifebelt, there are none. The best thing that could happen is to push for the role to be completely scrapped. I know that it could be 2020 before it can, but these are exceptional circumstances.
As for Oli and her running , I can’t put in print what I want as I am a lady,
I hear that Lutfur may be driving a battered old Nissan people carrier doing airport runs these days.
A word of warning, get the quote upfront, as I’ve seen some of the fares his party have signed off. Helicopter transfers with unlimited Krug may be cheaper. Also, you may want to strangle him from the passenger seat with his tales of woe!
“I hear that Lutfur may be driving a battered old Nissan people carrier doing airport runs these days.”
Ha! Frankly, given how well he was able to run a local council I’d not trust him to run a battered old Nissan people carrier. In fact, I don’t think I’d even trust him to run a bath in an honest manner ….
Certainly not run a fair election. Nor run away! More’s the pity!
The example of the drowning man is good as many at time a drowning man in panic will drag down to the depths those closest to him. No doubt THF councillors will be buckling up their life and additional allowance preservers as we speak
[…] « Lutfur appeals and tries to decide between Oli Rhaman and Rabina Khan (as Oli gets warning from … […]
I’m now imagining an evening at the Khans.
What time’s dinner dear?
Sorry, just rubber stamping some Bangladeshi only housing applications/upgrades/free gifts/etc.
I’m f’ing starving. Shredding the evidence all day is hard work.
Shut up and multiply my expenses you lazy sod!
🙂 🙂 🙂
I urge you Don’t! Its got to be bad for the mind and body in some way
Hi Ted
it was interesting reading your article above and your views on the case. Of course everyone are entitled to thier own opinion and that should be respected by all. I use to vote Labour however I changed that when I was let down big time by Mp Jim Fitzpatrick, also I don’t have a lot of time for conservatives after the very top at Downing street knew what abuse I was going through for 3.5yrs but replied to me saying that they couldn’t do nothing but I should approach my Mp Jim Fitzpatrick, I couldn’t believe what I was reading, after the communication with Fitzpatrick which I still have there was no way I was ever going to go back to him.
I then started to look at THF, I approached them and they were the only party that actually stood up for me and made action take place, through this period I got to know Rabina Khan and Lutfur Rahman, I ended up having the highest respect for both of them.
Learning what Rabina had done long before becoming a Cllr with her charity support was truly amazing which quiet rightly so got her nominated and win the Diversity Award.
You say in your article about Rabina being the puppet, I can assure you that she is nobody’s puppet and definitely has very strong opinions of her own which is much different from many other Councillors, She is much more educated and powerful then people realise. Also please bare in mind that i know for sure that she has a very large following off supporter’s in the Gay community as she’s also backed me in fighting for them in the past and they respect her very much for the work she did.
In my opinion I think people should watch this space with Rabina as I believe she could be a very powerful and good candidate for Mayor should Lutfur choose her as the candidate to put forward, she is a women with 3 children who understands things with a different eye than many of the other candidate. . I think it is very possible that if she is chosen by Lutfur and goes forward to win then the different parties and the residents of Tower Hamlets would be very impressed and finally see her in a different light and thank themselves for actually realising that they did the right thing in voting her in the beginning. .. So let’s watch this space!
“So let’s watch this space!”
Gary, I think the problem here is that rather too many people have been watching this space for a goodly while and can see the stuff that Rabina is made of. It’s exactly the same stuff that Rahman (L), Rahman (O), Choudrary et al are made of, and it’s dishonest, deceitful, self-serving, racist, grasping and corrupt.
However I am delighted to hear that you had a good experience with them. That’s lovely for you.
Tim.
=> gary reddin
Sadly Mr Rahman is most unlikely to put anyone forward as a mayoral or councillor candidate as he no longer has his “One Man Band” political party.
Obviously Mr Rahman can start another political party or attempt to resurrect his former party. It is my understanding there is nothing in the out-of-day election law of England preventing him.
Curious Cat
THF is not a party as teh Electoral Commission recently ruled. The Electoral Court ruled that all its Councillors came into office through corrupt and illegal practices. I have worked closely with Rabina and haven’t found her impressive or powerful.
I’ve met Rabina several times and found her to be odious and slippery on each occasion.
[…] to this post last night, I understand from sources close to Lutfur Rahman that Cllr Rabina Khan is to be offeees the chance […]
@The acting sead of haid pervices
If Lutfurs’s candidate wins, he’ll be vindicated. You will be having humble pie, if Pickles cares to share.
Yes no doubt one mans terrorist is another’s freedom fighter view might wash in conflicts opposing subjugation and dictatorship but this point on this corrupt case does and never will fall into that category.
My friend corruption is just corruption not an alternative route to freedom and justice.
@Ted – When will you guys start labelling people as just British? Why put British Bangladeshi in this debate against four white lads?
AB,
I usually, particularly with the younger generation of “Asians”, tell them if they were born here they are NOT Asians but English. That does surprise some of them. I tell them this country is their’s as well as it is mine.
Obviously if any of the “Asians” speak with a broad Scottish accent I substitute Scottish for English. Some actually wear kilts although I have to admit the wee lassies look better in them than the males do.
By “Asians” I mean people with a suntan who appear to have come from, or their parents appear to have come from or their grandparents appear to have come from, the Indian sub-continent – which are you experts know includes Ceylon (Sri Lanka), India, West Pakistan and East Pakistan, whoops Bangladesh.
Discriminating because of skin colour (nothing a baby or even an adult can change) or physical appearance is, and always has been, wrong.
Tower Hamlets does have a problem with racial isolation. If I was the Mayor, and I am certainly not applying for the job, I would set-up Portacabins in the Bangladeshi areas and provide free drop-in English language lessons and English culture lessons. Why all the usual Big Wigs never actively promote full social integration is beyond my modest comprehension.
But then I think councils should be non-political and everyone involved in the councils should love the public and strive to make the public smile.
Curious Cat.
You certainly wouldn’t get the job if you seriously think it’s OK to say things like “people with a suntan” who come from the Indian sub-continent!
My jaw dropped……….
They didn’t come from the north of Russia. Their physical appearance, compounded by their skin colour (suntan) suggests very clearly they or their patents etc. came form the Indian sub-continent.
Looking at some of these people who may be able to identify the Tamils who are slightly different from the Indians despite Tamils living both in Ceylon and in Southern India.
Similarly some Pakistanis look different from Bangladeshies.
Do you know why their skins are brown not white ? Hint: Its not because they use lots of suntan cream – its because their bodies protect their skins from the damaging effects of the sun by creating a barrier. Hence all sun-tanners need more exposure to sunlight than white skins to obtain the same amount of vitamin D.
CC.
@Curious Cat. you’re still going down the ethnic route which is what’s wrong here. Just keep to five candidates standing for Mayor, for example, and leave out Bangladeshi as the other candidates were not identified by their ethnicity. But I dare Ted to correct this and add ethnic origin of the other candidates in the same sentence where he uses British Bangladeshi!
AB,
If the English (‘cos they were born here) and the British (because they were not born here) people from, or with associations to, Bangladesh INTEGRATED MORE INTO THE GENERAL COMMUNITY no one would be able to label any of them British Bangladeshies.
This is where everyone’s favourite (or “infamous’) local council could really make a positive and beneficial difference. However nothing to assist and encourage social integration has been done. Instead the council, just like other councils, waste vast amounts of the public’s dosh on indecently high wages, and perks, and taxi fares and consultants galore.
Curious Cat
@Curious Cat. Suntan?!?! Man, what’s wrong with you!!
AB,
Lots of white people spend vast amounts of money trying to give themselves sun tans which others, with non-white skins, acquired by evolution over tens of thousands of years to protect themselves from the hash and damaging effects of the sun.
I don’t like the usage of “black” as in black people. One reason is the majority of “blacks” are not black but brown. Brown too are the so-called, in Britain, “Asians” although the majority of Asians, who come incidentally from Asia, are not as brown and some are actually white-ish.
I hate the racial stereo-typing. Just because someone is physically different from the majority it does NOT automatically signify they are more stupid, less talented or even less worthy of a place in society.
Why should I call British Bangladeshies “Asians”, Ditto Pakistanis, Indians etc. ? Asia is a jolly large area – the largest area in the world and Asia contains the vast majority of Russia – which is, as your Tower Hamlets victims know – the largest country in the world.
Tower Hamlets needs significantly better community integration – for all people including those with suntans and those without.
CC.
Hoping to get a sun tan if the sun shines this summer.