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Lutfur Rahman (Image credit: Adamkash/Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International)Anti-LTN candidate elected mayor despite five-year ban for "corrupt and illegal practices"
Tower Hamlets' mayoral race has been won by Lutfur Rahman — an outspoken critic of low traffic neighbourhoods (LTNs), who was removed from the same mayoral post in 2015 after being found guilty of electoral fraud, including "corrupt and illegal practices".
Representing Aspire, the party he formed in 2018, Rahman, in part, based his campaign around pledging to reverse LTNs in the London borough, claiming they had increased congestion and contributed to more CO2.
> Low traffic neighbourhoods encourage a quarter of Hackney’s residents to cycle more, poll finds
Rahman overhauled Labour incumbent John Biggs in the second round by 40,804 votes to 33,487, a result that Andrew Wood, an independent councillor for Canary Wharf, told the Independent was due to Biggs isolating working-class voters by introducing LTNs.
"Our roads have been closed, blocked up. It's contributing to more CO2 in the borough when the idea was to reduce it," Rahman claimed. "We're going to look at our roads, we're going to consult and reopen our roads."
The former solicitor's election was accepted as "decisive" by beaten Mr Biggs, however has not been welcomed by many. Conservative peer Lord Hayward called Rahman's return "depressing", and said his five-year ban was "inadequate".
The Aspire politician was removed from office in 2015 after being found guilty of vote-rigging, buying votes and religious intimidation, although police and the CPS (Crown Prosecution Service) concluded there was insufficient evidence for criminal prosecution.
Despite recently writing he had "never, ever acted dishonestly" on election leaflets, back in 2015, election commissioner Richard Mawrey said Rahman had "driven a coach and horses through election law and didn't care", and ordered the disgraced mayor to pay £250,000 in costs.
Mawrey added that Rahman had played the "race and Islamophobia card" and was "no doubt behind illegal and corrupt practices". Rahman was found to have, along with his supporters, used religious intimidation, vote-rigging and wrongly accused his Labour rival as racist to gain power.
A £1.7 million investigation by Scotland Yard concluded there was insufficient evidence for prosecution.
Now back in power, and with LTNs in his sights, Rahman told the BBC he was glad voters had given him "another chance to serve them".
"The people of the borough gave a verdict today. I was in the court of the people and they said in a loud voice that they wanted Lutfur Rahman and his team to serve them for the next four years," he said.
Dan joined road.cc in 2020, and spent most of his first year (hopefully) keeping you entertained on the live blog. At the start of 2022 he took on the role of news editor. Before joining road.cc, Dan wrote about various sports, including football and boxing for the Daily Express, and covered the weird and wonderful world of non-league football for The Non-League Paper. Part of the generation inspired by the 2012 Olympics, Dan has been 'enjoying' life on two wheels ever since and spends his weekends making bonk-induced trips to the petrol stations of the south of England.
Latest Comments
- Brauchsel 6 min 27 sec ago
Is the basic question of gear hardness/easiness here not equally expressed as "how far will the bike go each time I pedal it?"...
- Born_peddling 26 min 54 sec ago
MCR cycle euro capital???? Have had to read this article very carefully and repeatedly.... I know a good swath of Manchester locals and lovers of...
- Born_peddling 43 min 16 sec ago
You're joking right? Unless it's a bridal path there's very few "quiet" roads and the so called quiet roads are usually used as speed runs for...
- chrisonatrike 2 hours 15 min ago
He's probably busy doing his festive 1000. Apparently some similar-looking fellow is having this Christmas off......
- NOtotheEU 3 hours 43 min ago
I have the same problem with my front facing cameras so I wipe them regularly but the rear ones never seem to get wet. One is mounted on my...
- ktache 4 hours 12 min ago
As the excellent John Crace calls him, Jimmy Dimly, was telling us all not to be obsessed with the whole Rwanda thing a couple of weeks back.
- Bungle_52 4 hours 20 min ago
A better reply would be....
- ktache 4 hours 32 min ago
How come he's riding a bicycle from his 1950s future?
- JL77 5 hours 8 min ago
Think that my Toyota already has this.
- Hirsute 5 hours 48 min ago
Is he trying to put the wall back ?
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15 comments
"Labour’s defeat in Tower Hamlets, east London, was one of the biggest upsets at the local elections. It is a response to Islamophobia, state racism and Labour’s attacks on working class people.
Under Biggs the council has attacked workers’ rights and made major cuts to key frontline services such as children’s special needs provision, adult social care day centres, youth provision and more.
Unison union members fought a long strike in 2020 after the council imposed its version of fire and rehire on 4,000 workers. As John McLoughlin, Unison branch secretary (pc). told Socialist Worker, “Nobody in Tower Hamlets Unison will shed any tears to see that the mayor who sacked us in 2020 is now sacked himself.”
Tower Hamlets is one of the poorest areas in Britain. The council’s own review last year said, “Poverty in Tower Hamlets is nothing short of an emergency. On the eve of the pandemic, in a typical classroom of thirty children, seventeen were living below the poverty line. More than four in ten older people were living in low-income households.”
In those conditions, Rahman speaks to many people who feel abandoned in the face of relentless cuts and crushing pressure on their pay, benefits and pensions. In particular, he appeals to Muslims who feel battered by worsening state racism on top of the other class assaults.
It’s good Biggs has gone, but prepare now to confront .. Rahman if they let down the people who voted for them. "
from - Why Labour deserved to lose in Tower Hamlets (socialistworker.co.uk)
Rahman should have been barred from ever running for public office again. He was finally thrown out last time for siphoning off taxpayer funds to bribe Bangladeshi voters into voting for him. I don't see why he won't do it again to stay in power, although more carefully this time.
Private Eye has plenty of stories about him
[pedant]Well (for whatever reason) it appears to have been welcomed by the majority of those who voted. There may have been many who didn't welcome it, but that's not quite the same thing.[/pedant]
Probably because he was bribing them with taxpayer money into voting for him last time. They likely expect he'll start doing it again now he has power again.
From what I've been told his party were using the same ol' tactics this time around. He should've been banned for life.
It's unbelievable that Rahman was allowed to stand for public office ever again! Private Eye used to document his practices... Un. Be. Leeevable.!!
Yup - I doubt LTN / no LTN is the big reason behind this shyster (favourite of Private Eye as you say) getting back on the horse. Unfortunately in some places it's the same story as Boss Tweed - once someone's figured out what rings the bell with voters and got their hooks in they're hard to flush.
Anyway that's London, good luck y'all, back to holding the SNP councillors' feet to the fire on "transport beyond the tram" and adding provision for modes other than motor transport to all their new housing...
I bet we're all glad that the government* is gutting the electoral commission, removing its autonomy and making it subject to the will of, you guessed, the government*.
*If this utter shower of sh*t can be dignified with that totally undeserved epithet that is. Still, it's nice that the tories lost 500+ seats, and generally, anti-LTN candidates didn't do well.
Anti-LTN'ers just love misinformation don't they? A modal filter is not the same as a road closure. 🤮
He wasn't voted in for his stance on LTN. I spent many years living in that borough, he was voted in for another reason. I reason we can't say.
Woops, this wasn't supposed to be a reply to the above.
Vote early and often. And if you can't do that, ask a community elder to vote for you.
I'd guess his main opposition to LTNs is that it makes it harder for his "supporters" to drive round to community members' houses to "remind" them to vote correctly.
Also makes it easier for his voters to drive in from Ilford and even further out into Essex.