Lutfur Rahman stripped of Tower Hamlets mayoralty and banned from seeking re-election

Lutfur Rahman, the man elected as Mayor of Tower Hamlets last year in a rigged election, has been removed from office by a special election court.

Election Commissioner, Richard Mawry, ruled that Rahman and his assistant Alibor Choudhary broke election law on several occasions during the election campaign and whilst in office. He has been stripped of his mayoralty and banned from standing for re-election.

Under his leadership, members of the Tower Hamlets First party engaged in corruption, bribery and exercising undue spiritual influence over voters. An audit by accountants PriceWaterhouseCooper last year found that council officers were overruled in 81% of grant applications and that more than £400k had been given to ineligible organisations.

Tower Hamlets has been run by a Chief Executive and administrators since last year when Communities Secretary, Eric Pickles, appointed them to stop Rahman and his cronies from mismanaging the council.