Mayor of Tower Hamlets

Referendum

2010

The proposal to change the status of the borough from one with a leader and cabinet to one with an executive mayor was initially opposed by all the main political parties and was an initiative only proposed and supported by the Respect Party. Islamic Forum Europe organised a petition to trigger a referendum for this change. Council officers stated that almost half the signatures were invalid, with entire pages bearing the same handwriting. Despite the flaws in the petition, there were sufficient valid signatures for the council to accept it, and a referendum was held on 6 May 2010 simultaneously with the voting in the United Kingdom general election. The referendum was passed after an intensive campaign.

6 May 2010

Writing in the Sunday Telegraph on 17 October, Andrew Gilligan represented the forthcoming election as the first big test for the recently elected Labour leader Ed Miliband, given the possibility of an independent candidate defeating the official Labour candidate in a strong Labour borough. Gilligan also said that it raised concerns over the political power of radical Islam in the UK, because of candidate Lutfur Rahman's connections with Islamic Forum Europe. The latter, along with local business interests which had supported the petition and referendum to have a mayor, prominently backed Rahman's campaign. Labour's former London Mayor, Ken Livingstone, also campaigned in support of Rahman, in breach of Labour Party rules.

2021

6 May 2021 By a mayor who is elected by voters. By a leader who is an elected councillor chosen by a vote of the other elected councillors.

Elections

2010

The first election took place on Thursday 21 October 2010, with a 25.6 per cent turn out. The new mayor officially took office on Monday 25 October 2010.

|reg. electors = 182,482

2014

In April 2015, this election was declared void by an election court.

|reg. electors = 181,871

2015 by-election

After the 2014 election was declared void, a new election was held on 11 June 2015.

|reg. electors = 184,563

Councillor Rabina Khan initially announced that she would stand as the Tower Hamlets First candidate. However, as a result of findings in the election court case against Lutfur Rahman, Tower Hamlets First was removed from the register of political parties by the Electoral Commission as the party was not operating a responsible financial scheme and the running of the party did not follow the documentation given in the party's registration. Khan subsequently stood as an independent candidate.

Andy Erlam is a writer and film-maker who led the legal action against Rahman which resulted in the previous election being declared void. He had previously stood elsewhere as a Parliamentary candidate for Labour, then as the first candidate fielded by "Red Flag Anti-Corruption" in the Tower Hamlets Council elections on 22 May 2014. Red Flag Anti-Corruption had also fielded two parliamentary candidates in the 2015 UK general election, Jason Pavlou for Bethnal Green and Bow and Rene Claudel Mugenzi for Poplar and Limehouse, both within Tower Hamlets.

Liberal Democrat Elaine Bagshaw and UKIP candidate Nicholas McQueen both stood for their respective parties in Poplar and Limehouse at the 2015 general election.

2018

|reg. electors = 191,244

John Biggs defended the seat for Labour. Following a split in the former Tower Hamlets First group, Cllr Rabina Khan stood again, as the candidate for her new party, the People's Alliance of Tower Hamlets (PATH) while Cllr Ohid Ahmed stood for Aspire, which emerged from the post-Tower Hamlets First Tower Hamlets Independent Group. The Conservative Party selected Anwara Ali MBE, a local GP and, until 2010, local Labour councillor. The Liberal Democrats selected Elaine Bagshaw, their 2015 candidate. In August 2018, Khan wound up PATH and joined the Liberal Democrats.

2022

Biggs sought to defend his seat for Labour. In January 2022, Liberal Democrat councillor Rabina Khan was announced as the party's candidate for the mayoralty. Independent councillor Andrew Wood, who had resigned from the Conservative group in 2020, announced he would stand for election as both a councillor and mayor. Former mayor of the borough, Lutfur Rahman, announced his candidacy for the Aspire party in February 2022. Rahman's five-year ban from standing for election, having been found guilty by an election court of "corrupt and illegal practices", had elapsed. He was endorsed at his formal campaign launch in March by the former mayor of London Ken Livingstone and the peer Pola Uddin. Rahman won the election with a final vote share of 54.9%, unseating incumbent John Biggs and taking the mayoralty for the second time.

|reg. electors = 205,189

List of elected mayors

Notes

References

References

1. "Tower Hamlets Speaker of Council".
2. Gilligan, Andrew. (17 October 2010). "Tower Hamlets extremist vote poses Ed Miliband's first big election test". Sunday Telegraph.
3. (18 October 2010). "Ken Livingstone campaigning for non-Labour candidate". [[BBC News]].
4. (October 2010). "Mayoral election result, 21 October 2010". Tower Hamlets London Borough Council.
5. (21 October 2010). "Council boss in charge until new Tower Hamlets mayor takes charge on Monday". East London Advertiser.
6. "Tower Hamlets Mayoral Election – Thursday, 22nd May, 2014". Tower Hamlets Council.
7. (23 April 2015). "Tower Hamlets election fraud mayor Lutfur Rahman removed from office". BBC.
8. Richard Mawrey QC. (23 April 2015). "In the matter of the Representation of the People Act 1983 and in the matter of a Mayoral Election for the London Borough of Tower Hamlets held on 22 May 2014". High Court of Justice.
9. "Mayoral and Stepney Green elections 2015".
10. (15 May 2015). "Statement of Persons Nominated - London Borough of Tower Hamlets - Election of a Mayor of Tower Hamlets".
11. (2015-06-11). "Election results for Tower Hamlets". Tower Hamlets Council.
12. Sebastian Mann. (2015-04-25). "Lutfur Rahman: Labour selects John Biggs to stand in re-run Tower Hamlets election". Evening Standard.
13. Lauren Rickard. (5 May 2015). "Rabina Khan to stand as 'independent candidate' in re-run Tower Hamlets mayoral election". Eastlondonlines.
14. Tower Hamlets Green Party, http://towerhamlets.greenparty.org.uk/news/2015/04/29/john-foster-selected-to-fight-re-run-tower-hamlets-mayoral-election-for-green-party/
15. Mike Brooke. (1 May 2015). "Rabina Khan takes on fight for sacked mayor Rahman for Tower Hamlets re-run election". [[Docklands and East London Advertiser]].
16. Mike Brooke. (29 April 2015). "Rahman's 'Tower Hamlets First' is removed from Electoral Commission's party register". [[Docklands and East London Advertiser]].
17. (29 April 2015). "Media statement on removal of Tower Hamlets First from the Electoral Commission's register of political parties". Electoral Commission.
18. Press Association. (2015-04-26). "Leader of legal fight against Tower Hamlets mayor to run for office". The Guardian.
19. "Campaigner demands removal of returning officer – Eastlondonlines".
20. "Archived copy".
21. (3 May 2018). "Election results for Tower Hamlets, 3 May 2018". Tower Hamlets Council.
22. (7 March 2018). "Tower Hamlets mayor election rivals in tug-of-war as 'breach of protocol' row erupts".
23. (21 February 2018). "Conservative party nominates Dr Anwara Ali for Tower Hamlets' mayor".
24. "Knife crime and corruption weigh heavy on minds of East End voters", by Rachael Burford, ''Evening Standard'', 2 May 2018, p. 14
25. Shelton, Gareth Lewis. "Liberal Democrats Elect Elaine Bagshaw as Mayoral Candidate".
26. "Rabina Khan joins Liberal Democrats". East London News.
27. Doughty, Ellie. (2022-01-17). "Lib Dem candidate for Tower Hamlets mayor announced".
28. LDRS, Alastair Lockhart. (2022-01-21). "Councillor says he 'hopes to lose' next election".
29. Lydall, Ross. (2022-02-21). "Disgraced former Tower Hamlets mayor Lutfur Rahman to stand again".
30. Hill, Dave. (2020-11-12). "Tower Hamlets: Return of Lutfur Rahman?".
31. (2015-04-23). "Tower Hamlets election fraud mayor Lutfur Rahman removed from office". BBC News.
32. Baynes, Mark. (2022-03-17). ""I Would Trust Lutfur Rahman With My Life" says Ken Livingstone".
33. (6 May 2022). "Election results for Tower Hamlets, 5 May 2022". Tower Hamlets Council.
34. (6 April 2022). "Statement of Persons Nominated". Tower Hamlets Council.