Jump to content

Lutfur Rahman (British politician): Difference between revisions

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Browse history interactively
← Previous editNext edit →
Content deleted Content added
VisualWikitext
→‎Directly elected mayor of Tower Hamlets: The word "review" implies a degree of officiality. This was a blog by a Guardian reporter. Clarification.
Line 47: Line 47:
He was elected with over 51% of the vote receiving 23,283 votes. Labour's candidate came second with 11,254, Conservative 5,348, Liberal Democrat 2,800, Green 2,300.<ref>[http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-11604108 Lutfur Rahman wins Tower Hamlets mayoral election], BBC News, 22 October 2010</ref> He became Britain's first Muslim executive mayor.<ref name=guardian-20101108 />
He was elected with over 51% of the vote receiving 23,283 votes. Labour's candidate came second with 11,254, Conservative 5,348, Liberal Democrat 2,800, Green 2,300.<ref>[http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-11604108 Lutfur Rahman wins Tower Hamlets mayoral election], BBC News, 22 October 2010</ref> He became Britain's first Muslim executive mayor.<ref name=guardian-20101108 />


Rahman invited councillors from mainstream parties to join his cabinet, but only five did so, all former Labour members. In February 2011 a ''[[Guardian]]'' blog report covering his early performance as Mayor concluded that he had proved "highly adept at political jujutsu - drawing strength from his enemies' attack", including unfair branding of the borough as "Islamist" in the tabloids, and was working with the local Labour MPs to resist [[United Kingdom coalition government (2010–present)|the Government's]] cuts.<ref name=guardian-20110211>{{cite news|last=Hill |first=Dave |url=http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/davehillblog/2011/feb/11/lutfur-rahman-labour-tower-hamlets |title=Tower Hamlets: Lutfur, Labour and beyond |publisher=The Guardian |date=11 February 2011 |accessdate=14 February 2011}}</ref>
Rahman invited councillors from mainstream parties to join his cabinet, but only five did so, all former Labour members. In February 2011 a ''[[The Guardian|Guardian]]'' blog report covering his early performance as Mayor concluded that he had proved "highly adept at political jujutsu - drawing strength from his enemies' attack", including unfair branding of the borough as "Islamist" in the tabloids, and was working with the local Labour MPs to resist [[United Kingdom coalition government (2010–present)|the Government's]] cuts.<ref name=guardian-20110211>{{cite news|last=Hill |first=Dave |url=http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/davehillblog/2011/feb/11/lutfur-rahman-labour-tower-hamlets |title=Tower Hamlets: Lutfur, Labour and beyond |publisher=The Guardian |date=11 February 2011 |accessdate=14 February 2011}}</ref>


Later a Labour Party investigation report stated that 16 members not registered in the constituency had participated in the selection, but which candidate they voted for was not known, and in any event these would not have changed the outcome of the selection process.<ref name=guardian-20110211 />
Later a Labour Party investigation report stated that 16 members not registered in the constituency had participated in the selection, but which candidate they voted for was not known, and in any event these would not have changed the outcome of the selection process.<ref name=guardian-20110211 />

Revision as of 21:06, 25 January 2012

Cllr Lutfur Rahman
File:Lutfur Rahman by Khalid Hussain.jpg
Mayor of Tower Hamlets
Assumed office
25 October 2010
Majority12,029 (26.7%)
Personal details
BornSylhet, Bangladesh
NationalityBritish
Political partyIndependent
(formerly Labour)
Residence(s)East London, United Kingdom
Alma materBow School,
City University London
WebsiteMayor of Tower Hamlets webpage

Lutfur Rahman is a community activist and local politician in London, England. He became the first directly elected mayor of Tower Hamlets in 2010, having previously been the leader of Tower Hamlets London Borough Council from 2008 to 2010.

Education

Rahman was born in Bangladesh, and then moved to the United Kingdom at a young age. He grew up in Tower Hamlets and attended the Manor Primary School in Bow, the Lawdale Junior School in Bethnal Green and Bow School. After studying Law at City University London,[citation needed] Rahman qualified as a solicitor and specialised in family law.[2]

Activities

Rahman has taken part in local civil society initiatives including Member and General Secretary (1987–89) of Progressive Youth Organisation, Spitalfields and Founding Member and first Treasurer (1990) of Keen Students Supplementary School (KSS). He was General Secretary of Community Alliance for Police Accountability (CAPA) and Chair of the Tower Hamlets Tower Hamlets Law Centre. Rahman has also been a Non-Executive Director of Barts and The London NHS Trust.[3]

Rahman was elected as a Labour Councillor for the Spitalfields and Banglatown ward in 2002 and re-elected in 2006. He has been part of the leadership of Tower Hamlets Council, serving as Lead member for Education for two years and, from 2006–2007, Lead Member for Culture. In February 2007, Rahman announced his intention to be the prospective Labour Party candidate for Bethnal Green and Bow. However, he came second to Rushanara Ali who went on to win the Parliamentary seat.

In April 2008 he was elected Leader of the majority Labour Group on Tower Hamlets Council, and therefore Leader of the Council. After the local elections In May 2010, at which Labour increased their number of councillors, Lutfur Rahman was replaced as Leader by Cllr. Helal Uddin Abbas.[4]

Directly elected mayor of Tower Hamlets

In September 2010, Rahman was selected[5] by the Tower Hamlets Labour Party as its candidate to be the first directly elected mayor of Tower Hamlets. However his candidacy was controversial and his placement on the shortlist of preferred Labour Party candidates was withdrawn on several occasions before it was finally confirmed following legal action on behalf of Rahman.[6][7][8] He was finally elected as Labour's Mayoral candidate by Tower Hamlets Borough Labour Party members receiving 433 votes, compared to John Biggs with 251 votes and Helal Abbas with 157 votes.[9] He was declared as the winning candidate by Ken Clark, Director of London Regional Labour Party. However, after allegations that he was closely linked to an Islamic fundamentalist group, the Islamic Forum of Europe, and that he had personally signed up fake members in order to win the selection, he was removed as Labour's candidate by the Labour Party's National Executive Committee and replaced by the 'third man' Helal Uddin Abbas.[8][10]

He was at first said to be considering urgent legal action to be reinstated,[11] but declared on 23 September that he would stand as an Independent candidate.[12] The Respect Party declared its support for him.[1]

Rahman presents himself as a social democrat, but to the left of the official Labour candidate.[1] A Labour councillor described Rahman's campaign as 'a hugely well-financed operation,' but he claimed to meet all his own costs from his earnings as a solicitor, including the launch event at the Troxy and the printing of election leaflets.[1][13]

He was elected with over 51% of the vote receiving 23,283 votes. Labour's candidate came second with 11,254, Conservative 5,348, Liberal Democrat 2,800, Green 2,300.[14] He became Britain's first Muslim executive mayor.[2]

Rahman invited councillors from mainstream parties to join his cabinet, but only five did so, all former Labour members. In February 2011 a Guardian blog report covering his early performance as Mayor concluded that he had proved "highly adept at political jujutsu - drawing strength from his enemies' attack", including unfair branding of the borough as "Islamist" in the tabloids, and was working with the local Labour MPs to resist the Government's cuts.[15]

Later a Labour Party investigation report stated that 16 members not registered in the constituency had participated in the selection, but which candidate they voted for was not known, and in any event these would not have changed the outcome of the selection process.[15]

Other controversies

Rahman’s leadership came under criticism in June 2009, when he reportedly stated that he had no confidence in Tower Hamlets' Chief Executive, Martin Smith, and told him to ‘go home and consider your future.’[16] The news came on the eve of voting for the European elections, which Smith nevertheless attended as the council's returning officer. For his dismissal over a personality clash, Smith's terms of employment, negotiated when the council was under the Labour Party leadership of Cllr Denise Jones, entitled him to a payout in the region of £500,000.[16]

Andrew Gilligan in a Channel 4 Dispatches documentary in March 2010, and in a series of Daily Telegraph blogs and articles, accused Rahman of achieving the council leadership with the help of the Islamic Forum of Europe.[4][17][18] The IFE was accused by the local Labour MP, Jim Fitzpatrick, of infiltrating the council and the Labour Party.[4] It was further claimed by Gilligan that during Rahman's leadership of the council, millions of pounds of public money were paid to organisations run by the IFE, and that the results included stocks of extremist literature being made available in public libraries.[13] However, Rahman denied in October 2010 that he was in league with the IFE.[1] IFE issued a statement denying Rahman was a member of the IFE and stating that Abbas, Labour's replacement condidate, had also had public and private meetings with the IFE.[19] In 2011, Rahman complained to the Press Complaints Commission about his description by Gilligan and the Telegraph as "extremist-backed" and as having "close links" to the IFE. The Commission rejected the complaint, saying that the description was "not misleading." [20]

Conservative councillor Peter Golds asked the police and the Electoral Commission to investigate Rahman for alleged undeclared donations from Brick Lane restauranteur Shiraj Haque to fund Rahman's legal action against the Labour Party.[15][21] Interviewed for the Guardian in October 2010, Rahman dismissed the complaint and insisted that, like the electoral campaign, he meets all his own expenses and legal costs.[1] Subsequently the Press Complaints Commission upheld a complaint by Rahman against Andrew Gilligan for repeating these allegations in the Daily Telegraph without stating that the police had decided that there was no case to answer, causing the reporting to be "inaccurate and misleading".[22]

See also

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f Hill, Dave (12 October 2010). "Tower Hamlets: interview with independent mayoral candidate Lutfur Rahman". The Guardian. Retrieved 2010-10-17.
  2. ^ a b Hill, Dave (8 November 2010). "Britain's first Muslim executive mayor vows to 'reach out to every community'". The Guardian. Retrieved 8 November 2010.
  3. ^ Minutes of the open Trust Board, December 2007, Barts and The London NHS Trust
  4. ^ a b c Gilligan, Andrew (11 May 2010). "Islamists are crushed in Tower Hamlets". Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 2010-09-21.
  5. ^ Hill, Dave (22 August 2010). "Tower Hamlets: Labour selects its mayoral candidate". The Guardian. Retrieved 2010-09-21.
  6. ^ Hill, Dave (27 July 2010). "Tower Hamlets mayoral race: Labour's selection confusion". The Guardian. Retrieved 2010-09-21.
  7. ^ Hill, Dave (12 July 2010). "Tower Hamlets: Labour's new mayoral shortlist". The Guardian. Retrieved 2010-09-21.
  8. ^ a b Hill, Dave (23 August 2010). "Tower Hamlets: Lutfur's Rahman removed as Labour mayoral candidate in Tower Hamlets". The Guardian. Retrieved 21 September 2010.
  9. ^ "Breaking News - Press Release 21st September 2010". Labour Briefing. 21 September 2010. Retrieved 3 November 2010.
  10. ^ Eaton, George (22 October 2010). "A bad night for Labour in Tower Hamlets". New Statesman. Retrieved 22 October 2010.
  11. ^ Gilligan, Andrew (22 September 2010). "Lutfur Rahman: Galloway jets in". Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 2010-09-22.
  12. ^ "Rahman to stand as independent in Tower Hamlets mayoral race". East London Advertiser. 23 September 2010. Retrieved 23 September 2010.
  13. ^ a b Gilligan, Andrew (17 October 2010). "Tower Hamlets extremist vote poses Ed Miliband's first big election test". Sunday Telegraph. Retrieved 2010-10-18.
  14. ^ Lutfur Rahman wins Tower Hamlets mayoral election, BBC News, 22 October 2010
  15. ^ a b c Hill, Dave (11 February 2011). "Tower Hamlets: Lutfur, Labour and beyond". The Guardian. Retrieved 14 February 2011.
  16. ^ a b Council exec's £500k after ‘falling out with leader’, Evening Standard, 22 June 2009. Retrieved 8 October 2010.
  17. ^ "Britain's Islamic Republic". Channel 4. 1 March 2010. Retrieved 3 November 2010.
  18. ^ Gilligan, Andrew (2 March 2010). "Transcript of Channel 4 interview with Lutfur Rahman". Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 2010-11-15.
  19. ^ "Islamic Forum of Europe: Response To Statement of Helal Abbas". Islamic Forum of Europe. 15 October 2010. ATC479. Retrieved 3 November 2010.
  20. ^ "Adjudicated - Mr Lutfur Rahman v The Daily Telegraph". Press Complaints Commission. 20 December 2011. Retrieved 22 December 2011.
  21. ^ "Police asked to probe Rahman mayor election expenses". East London Advertiser. 21 September 2010. Retrieved 3 November 2010.
  22. ^ "Adjudicated - Mr Lutfur Rahman v The Daily Telegraph". Press Complaints Commission. 20 December 2011. Retrieved 22 December 2011.

Template:Persondata

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Lutfur_Rahman_(British_politician)&oldid=473220885"