Mayor of Tower Hamlets

For civic mayors, see List of mayors of Tower Hamlets.

The mayor of Tower Hamlets is the directly elected mayor of Tower Hamlets London Borough Council in east London, England. The first election for this position occurred on 21 October 2010, taking on the executive function of the borough council. The position is different from the previous largely ceremonial, annually appointed mayors of Tower Hamlets, who became known as the 'Chair of Council' after the first election and are now known as the 'Speaker of Council'.^[1] The second election was held on 22 May 2014, the same day as the Tower Hamlets Council election, other United Kingdom local elections, and European Parliament elections, but the election result was declared void by the election court. A by-election was held on 11 June 2015.

Mayor of Tower Hamlets
Incumbent Lutfur Rahman since 9 May 2022
Style	No courtesy title or style
Appointer	Electorate of Tower Hamlets
Term length	Four years
Inaugural holder	Lutfur Rahman
Formation	May 2010 referendum

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.^[2] 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.^[2]

Mayor of Tower Hamlets Referendum
6 May 2010

Choice	Votes	%
Elected Mayor	60,758	59.67
Cabinet System	39,857	39.15
Ballot paper(s) rejected	1,203	1.18
Total votes	100,615	100.00
Source: https://democracy.towerhamlets.gov.uk/mgElectionAreaResults.aspx?ID=147&RPID=0

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.^[2] Labour's former London Mayor, Ken Livingstone, also campaigned in support of Rahman, in breach of Labour Party rules.^[3]

2021

London Borough of Tower Hamlets Referendum on the Councils Governance Model.
6 May 2021

Choice	Votes	%
Keep, By a mayor who is elected by voters.	63,029	74.66
Change, By a leader who is an elected councillor chosen by a vote of the other elected councillors.	17,951	21.26
Ballot paper(s) rejected	3,444	4.08
Total votes	80,980	100.00
Source: https://www.eastlondonadvertiser.co.uk/news/local-council/referendum-result-to-keep-tower-hamlets-mayor-7958210

Elections

2010

The first election took place on Thursday 21 October 2010, with a 25.6 per cent turn out.^[4] The new mayor officially took office on Monday 25 October 2010.^[5]

Tower Hamlets mayoral election 21 October 2010 ^[4]
Party		Candidate	1st round		2nd round			First round votes  Transfer votes
			Total	Of round	Transfers	Total	Of round
	Independent	Lutfur Rahman	23,283	51.8%				​​
	Labour	Helal Uddin Abbas	11,254	25.0%				​​
	Conservative	Neil King	5,348	11.9%				​​
	Liberal Democrats	John Griffiths	2,800	6.2%				​​
	Green	Alan Duffell	2,300	5.1%				​​
Turnout			46,719	25.60%	Rejected ballots: 1,734
Registered electors			182,482
	Independent win

2014

In April 2015, this election was declared void by an election court.^[6]

Tower Hamlets Mayoral Election 22 May 2014 (since declared void by an election court^[7]) ^[8]
Party		Candidate	1st round		2nd round			First round votes  Transfer votes
			Total	Of round	Transfers	Total	Of round
	Tower Hamlets First	Lutfur Rahman	36,539	43.38%	856	37,395	52.27%	​​
	Labour	John Biggs	27,643	32.82%	6,500	34,143	47.73%	​​
	Conservative	Christopher Wilford	7,173	8.52%				​​
	UKIP	Nicholas M^cQueen	4,819	5.72%				​​
	Green	Chris Smith	4,699	5.58%				​​
	Liberal Democrats	Reetendra Banerji	1,959	2.33%				​​
	TUSC	Hugo Pierre	871	1.03%				​​
	Independent	Reza Choudhury	205	0.24%				​​
	Independent	Mohammed Khan	164	0.19%				​​
	Independent	Hafiz Kadir	162	0.19%				​​
Turnout			86,540	47.58%	Rejected ballots: 2,306
Registered electors			181,871
Void election result

2015 by-election

After the 2014 election was declared void, a new election was held on 11 June 2015.^{[6][7][9][10]}

Tower Hamlets Mayoral by-election, 2015^[11]
Party		Candidate	1st round		2nd round			First round votes  Transfer votes
			Total	Of round	Transfers	Total	Of round
	Labour	John Biggs^[12]	27,255	40.00%	5,499	32,754	55.39%	​​
	Independent	Rabina Khan^[13]	25,763	37.81%	621	26,384	44.61%	​​
	Conservative	Peter Golds	5,940	8.72%				​​
	Green	John Foster^[14]	2,678	3.93%				​​
	Liberal Democrats	Elaine Bagshaw	2,152	3.16%				​​
	Red Flag Anti-Corruption	Andy Erlam	1,768	2.59%				​​
	UKIP	Nicholas M^cQueen	1,669	2.45%				​​
	Independent	Hafiz Kadir	316	0.46%				​​
	Animal Welfare	Vanessa Hudson	305	0.45%				​​
	Independent	Md. Motiur Rahman Nanu	292	0.43%				​​
Turnout			69,643	37.73%	Rejected ballots: 1,505
Registered electors			184,563
	Labour gain from Independent

Councillor Rabina Khan initially announced that she would stand as the Tower Hamlets First candidate.^[15] 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.^[16][17] 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^[18] for Labour,^{[citation needed]} then as the first candidate fielded by "Red Flag Anti-Corruption" in the Tower Hamlets Council elections on 22 May 2014.^[19] Red Flag Anti-Corruption had also fielded two parliamentary candidates in the 2015 UK general election,^[20] 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

Tower Hamlets mayoral election 3 May 2018^[21]
Party		Candidate	1st round		2nd round			First round votes  Transfer votes
			Total	Of round	Transfers	Total	Of round
	Labour	John Biggs	37,619	48.43%	7,246	44,865	72.66%	​​
	PATH	Rabina Khan	13,113	16.88%	3,765	16,878	27.34%	​​
	Aspire	Ohid Ahmed	11,109	14.30%				​​
	Conservative	Anwara Ali	6,149	7.92%				​​
	Liberal Democrats	Elaine Bagshaw	5,598	7.21%				​​
	Green	Ciaran Jebb	3,365	4.33%				​​
	TUSC	Hugo Pierre	728	0.94%				​​
Turnout			80,252	41.96%	Rejected ballots: 2,571
Registered electors			191,244
	Labour hold

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.^[22] The Conservative Party selected Dr Anwara Ali MBE, a local GP^[23] and, until 2010, local Labour councillor.^[24] The Liberal Democrats selected Elaine Bagshaw, their 2015 candidate.^[25] In August 2018, Khan wound up PATH and joined the Liberal Democrats.^[26]

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.^[27] 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.^[28] Former mayor of the borough, Lutfur Rahman, announced his candidacy for the Aspire party in February 2022.^[29] Rahman's five-year ban from standing for election, having been found guilty by an election court of "corrupt and illegal practices", had elapsed.^[30][31] He was endorsed at his formal campaign launch in March by the former mayor of London Ken Livingstone and the peer Pola Uddin.^[32] Rahman won the election with a final vote share of 54.9%, unseating incumbent John Biggs and taking the mayoralty for the second time.

Tower Hamlets mayoral election 5 May 2022^[33]
Party		Candidate	1st round		2nd round			First round votes  Transfer votes
			Total	Of round	Transfers	Total	Of round
	Aspire	Lutfur Rahman	39,533	46.99%	1,271	40,804	54.90%	​​
	Labour	John Biggs	27,894	33.20%	5,593	33,487	45.10%	​​
	Liberal Democrats	Rabina Khan	6,430	7.65%				​​
	Conservative	Elliott Weaver	4,269	5.07%				​​
	Independent	Andrew Wood	3,985	4.74%				​​
	TUSC	Hugo Pierre	1,462	1.74%				​​
	Independent	Pamela Holmes	552	0.66%				​​
Turnout			84,125	41.92%	Rejected ballots: 1,864
Registered electors			205,189
	Aspire gain from Labour

List of elected mayors

Political party		Name	Term of office & mandate
	Independent	Lutfur Rahman	25 October 2010	23 April 2015	2010
	Tower Hamlets First (2013–15)
					(2014)^[a]
			4 years and 181 days
	Labour Co-op	John Biggs	15 June 2015	8 May 2022	2015
					2018
			6 years and 328 days
	Aspire	Lutfur Rahman	9 May 2022	Incumbent	2022
			1 year and 220 days

Notes

1. In April 2015 this election was declared void by an election court.^[6]

References

1. . Archived from the original on 2 November 2013. Retrieved 10 November 2013.
2. Gilligan, Andrew (17 October 2010). . Sunday Telegraph. Archived from the original on 18 October 2010. Retrieved 18 October 2010.
3. "Ken Livingstone campaigning for non-Labour candidate". BBC News. 18 October 2010. Retrieved 4 December 2010.
4. . Tower Hamlets London Borough Council. October 2010. Archived from the original on 2 July 2010. Retrieved 14 December 2010.
5. "Council boss in charge until new Tower Hamlets mayor takes charge on Monday". East London Advertiser. 21 October 2010. from the original on 4 November 2010. Retrieved 14 December 2010.
6. "Tower Hamlets election fraud mayor Lutfur Rahman removed from office". BBC. 23 April 2015. Retrieved 30 April 2015.
7. 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" (PDF). High Court of Justice. M/350/14. Retrieved 11 June 2015.
8. . Tower Hamlets Council. Archived from the original on 25 May 2014. Retrieved 24 May 2014.
9. . Archived from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 2015-04-24.
10. . Archived from the original on 13 June 2015. Retrieved 2015-05-15.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
11. "Election results for Tower Hamlets". Tower Hamlets Council. 11 June 2015. Retrieved 8 August 2016.
12. Sebastian Mann (25 April 2015). "Lutfur Rahman: Labour selects John Biggs to stand in re-run Tower Hamlets election". Evening Standard. Retrieved 8 August 2016.
13. Lauren Rickard (5 May 2015). "Rabina Khan to stand as 'independent candidate' in re-run Tower Hamlets mayoral election". Eastlondonlines. Retrieved 6 May 2015.
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. Retrieved 1 May 2015.
16. Mike Brooke (29 April 2015). "Rahman's 'Tower Hamlets First' is removed from Electoral Commission's party register". Docklands and East London Advertiser. Retrieved 1 May 2015.
17. "Media statement on removal of Tower Hamlets First from the Electoral Commission's register of political parties". Electoral Commission. 29 April 2015. Retrieved 1 May 2015.
18. Press Association (26 April 2015). "Leader of legal fight against Tower Hamlets mayor to run for office". The Guardian. Retrieved 8 August 2016.
19. "Campaigner demands removal of returning officer – Eastlondonlines". www.eastlondonlines.co.uk.
20. . Archived from the original on 15 April 2015. Retrieved 20 April 2015.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
21. "Election results for Tower Hamlets, 3 May 2018". Tower Hamlets Council. 3 May 2018. Retrieved 4 May 2018.
22. "Tower Hamlets mayor election rivals in tug-of-war as 'breach of protocol' row erupts". 7 March 2018.
23. "Conservative party nominates Dr Anwara Ali for Tower Hamlets' mayor". 21 February 2018.
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". Tower Hamlets Liberal Democrats.
26. "Rabina Khan joins Liberal Democrats". East London News.
27. Doughty, Ellie (17 January 2022). "Lib Dem candidate for Tower Hamlets mayor announced". East London Advertiser. Retrieved 22 January 2022.
28. LDRS, Alastair Lockhart (21 January 2022). "Councillor says he 'hopes to lose' next election". East London Advertiser. Retrieved 22 February 2022.
29. Lydall, Ross (21 February 2022). "Disgraced former Tower Hamlets mayor Lutfur Rahman to stand again". www.standard.co.uk. Retrieved 21 February 2022.
30. Hill, Dave (12 November 2020). "Tower Hamlets: Return of Lutfur Rahman?". OnLondon. Retrieved 22 October 2021.
31. "Tower Hamlets election fraud mayor Lutfur Rahman removed from office". BBC News. 23 April 2015. Retrieved 22 October 2021.
32. Baynes, Mark (17 March 2022). ""I Would Trust Lutfur Rahman With My Life" says Ken Livingstone". East End Enquirer.
33. "Election results for Tower Hamlets, 5 May 2022". Tower Hamlets Council. 6 May 2022. Retrieved 6 May 2022.