Lutfur Rahman

Lutfur Rahman is the first directly elected mayor of Tower Hamlets, in London. He was elected to the role in 2010, having previously been the leader of Tower Hamlets London Borough Council from 2008 to 2010. His first mayoral term has been marked by severe financial restrictions imposed upon the borough by the national government; much of his work has focused on assisting those affected by these cuts. ^[2] Mayor Rahman's political ability has been well commented on, in February 2011 a Guardian blog report covering his early performance as Mayor concluded that he had proved "highly adept at political jujutsu". ^[3]

Early life

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 Marner Primary School in Bow, the Lawdale Junior School in Bethnal Green and Bow School.^[4]

Career

Rahman qualified as a solicitor and became a partner in a legal firm, specialising in family law.^[5] He is a member of The Law Society Advanced Children’s Law Panel, and was chairman of Tower Hamlets Law Centre from 1996 to 2001.^[6]

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).^{[citation needed]} He was General Secretary of Community Alliance for Police Accountability (CAPA).^{[citation needed]} Rahman has also been a Non-Executive Director of Barts and The London NHS Trust.^[7]

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, replacing Denise Jones.^[8] After the local elections In May 2010, at which Labour increased their number of councillors, Lutfur Rahman was replaced as Leader by Helal Uddin Abbas, in part due to a Channel Four investigation which linked Rahman to the Islamic Forum of Europe.^[9]

Directly elected mayor of Tower Hamlets

In September 2010, Rahman was selected^[10] 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.^[11][12][13] 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.^[14] 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.^[13][15]

He was at first said to be considering urgent legal action to be reinstated,^[16] but declared on 23 September that he would stand as an Independent candidate.^[17] 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 Rahman stated he had met all his own costs from his earnings as a solicitor, including the launch event at the Troxy and the printing of election leaflets.^[1][18]

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.^[19] He became Britain's first Muslim executive mayor.^[5]

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.^[20]

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.^[20]

Controversies

Despite noted success in Rahman's mayorship he has also drawn attention for controversies.

Sacking of Chief Executive

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.’^[21] 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.^[21]

Subject of Channel 4 Dispatches documentary

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.^[9][22][23] The IFE was accused by the local Labour MP, Jim Fitzpatrick, of infiltrating the council and the Labour Party.^[9] It was further stated 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.^[18] 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 candidate, had also had public and private meetings with the IFE.^[24] 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." ^[25]

Allegations of financial irregularities in electioneering

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.^[20][26] 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".^[25]

Vanity office spending

In 2011, the Evening Standard newspaper reported that Rahman had been accused of spending £115,000 on a "vanity office" for himself. The project increased the office space available for the new directly elected mayor, the council cabinet, and opposition parties.^[27] Later that year it was reported that Rahman hired a Mercedes E-Class saloon at a cost of £72 a day, in addition to the cost of being chauffeur-driven by council staff,^[28] and he was criticized for not using public transport or his own car as other mayors do.^[29]

Selling council artefacts (Henry Moore Sculpture)

In November 2012, Rahman overruled the recommendation of his councillors that Henry Moore's Draped Seated Woman, donated by the artist on the understanding that it would be permanently available for public appreciation in a socially deprived area of London, should not be sold.^[30][31] Council officers had recommended the work should be sold, as there was no safe council property to locate it, making it uninsurable.^[32] Ultimately, it was found that the sculpture was actually owned by the London Borough of Bromley because, although residing in Tower Hamlets, when the Greater London Council had been wound up, and after that, the London Residual Body had been wound up too, all remaining GLC assets had been gifted to Bromley, and thus the sculpture was theirs - and they didn't want it sold.^[33]

Association with criminals

Mayor Rahman has been known to have associated with two convicted criminals; one convicted fraudster; the multi millionaire housing association resident Shiraj Haque^{[34] [35]} and one convicted sex offender; Zamal Uddin. ^[36] Mayor Rahman later apologised for providing a court character reference to Zamal Uddin stating that he had been misled by the defendant's family. ^[37]

See also

• British Bangladeshi
• Directly elected mayors in the United Kingdom
• List of British Bangladeshis

References

External links

• Lutfur Rahman, Mayor of Tower Hamlets, Tower Hamlets council
• Mayor Lutfur Rahman's blog
• Lutfur Rahman 2010 mayor election website
• Meet your councillor: Councillor Lutfur Rahman, Tower Hamlets Council website
• British Bangladeshi Who's Who 2008 - Cllr. Lutfur Rahman
• CityMayors profile
• Lutfur Rahman interviewed by Mehdi Hasan in New Statesman, November 2010