Jump directly to the content

NightMayor of East London… election declared void

— Lutfur Rahman played race card to act as dictator
— Court chucks him out of office with £1million bill

A CROOKED mayor who played the race card to win an election was turfed out of office yesterday.

Lutfur Rahman, 49, was found guilty of corrupt and illegal practices to win the 2014 vote and then run a dictatorship.

Voters were intimidated and up to a quarter of the ballots cast deemed “suspicious” by experts.

A High Court judge ruled the election void in Tower Hamlets and left Rahman facing bankruptcy with a £1million legal bill. He could also face criminal proceedings.

Richard Mawrey QC, sitting as an Election Commissioner, blasted the mayor as a pathological liar and said the “alarming state of affairs” in London’s poorest borough was down to his ruthless ambition.

The election will now be re-run with Bangladeshi-born Rahman banned from the electoral register.

False hero... Rahman is elected as first Muslim mayor

Rex Features
4

In 2010 he became Britain’s first directly-elected Muslim mayor when he won as an independent.

He had been removed as Labour’s candidate after being linked to Islamic extremism, which he has always denied.

For the 2014 election he set up the Tower Hamlets First party, and beat Labour’s John Biggs by 3,000 votes. But four campaigners, including Mr Biggs, went to the High Court in a bid to overturn the result. The court heard that during the election mobs shouted at Bangladeshi residents, urging them to back Rahman.

One witness spoke of “running the gauntlet”, a woman was spat at and a young Asian broke down in tears.

Judge said Rahman had 'ruthless ambition'

JUSTIN TALLIS/AFP/Getty Images
4

Lawyer Rahman also paid a Bangladeshi TV station for support.

Handwriting expert Robert Radley told the court he had never seen a case in a 37-year career in which up to a quarter of ballot papers appeared to be suspicious.

At the end of the ten-week hearing yesterday, Judge Mawrey found ballots had been double-cast or cast from false addresses. Postal votes had also been case from fictitious and even dead residents.

Mr Biggs was wrongly branded a racist and it was claimed he would not look after ethnic minorities.

The judge also found Rahman and his cronies organised postal fraud and bribed organisations which he favoured, most of which were run by Bangladeshi groups.

Fresh election will be held in Tower Hamlets

4

He stopped short of finding Rahman guilty of causing “undue influence by intimidation” but branded his backers’ polling station antics as “deplorable even indefensible”.

Grants totalling £100,000 were handed to ten organisations, all Bangladeshi or Muslim, for lunch clubs when none even applied for it.

Residents were encouraged with free food and drink and told it was their duty as “good Muslims” to vote for Rahman. His aide Alibor Choudhury was also found guilty of corrupt and illegal practices.

Outside court Mr Biggs, 57, said: “I feel vindicated. It has been bruising.”

Campaigner Andy Erlam, 64, added: “The more we investigated the more shocked we were with the industrial scale of fraud.”

After the hearing, Rahman denied wrongdoing.

[email protected]

Palace and Merc

Inline Image

4

CORRUPT Rahman splashed £9million on an old hospital so he could turn it into a council palace.

He also hoisted the Palestinian flag over the offices last year and was investigated by BBC Panorama for allegedly buying influence by dishing out extra funding for Bengali-run charities.

In 2011 he was accused of spending £115,000 on a “vanity office” space. Later that year it was reported he hired a chauffeur-driven Mercedes E-Class at a cost of £72 a day.

He axed the car in 2014 after he was filmed using it to drop off washing at his home.

Azmal Hussein, 63, who took the mayor to the High Court with Angela Moffat, Andy Erlam and John Biggs, said: “If anyone didn’t obey he’d push them all the way.

“He acted like a dictator and divided people along religious lines. I feel relief. It’s not a rotten borough any more. We are clean.”