Leader of legal fight against Tower Hamlets mayor to run for office
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Version 0 of 1. A writer and film-maker who led a successful legal fight to oust the mayor of a London borough is to run for office. Lutfur Rahman was ordered to step down as mayor of Tower Hamlets on Thursday when a judge found him guilty of corrupt and illegal practices following a high court hearing. Four Tower Hamlets voters had launched legal action against Rahman, and Andy Erlam, who led the group, today said he would stand for mayor in a new election on 11 June. Related: Tower Hamlets: relief and anger at Lutfur Rahman court ruling “Many people have asked me to stand,” said Erlam, 64. “It’s the chance in our lifetimes to change everything for the better.” He added: “If elected I will … end the cult of personality at the town hall and investigate and change every aspect of the council with the many good officers who I know have been frustrated and blocked for years.” The high court had been told that Erlam was a former political adviser who had been a parliamentary candidate in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, and Bexleyheath, south-east London. He had also stood for election to Tower Hamlets council on an anti-corruption ticket. Erlam today said he would be backed in his fight to be mayor by an anti-corruption party called Red Flag. Rahman was found “personally” guilty of wrongdoing and “guilty by his agents” by election commissioner Richard Mawrey, who sat as a judge at an election court trial. Mawrey said his ruling meant the 2014 Tower Hamlets mayoral election was void and would have to be re-run. Rahman, a former Labour councillor who had stood for mayor on an independent ticket, would be barred from running for office for five years. Erlam has described Mawrey’s ruling as “fantastic for democracy”, but he said more inquiries were needed. He has urged police to investigate and called on prosecutors to consider bringing criminal charges. Rahman said there was little, if any evidence of wrongdoing against him. His lawyers described the group of four’s claims as invention, exaggeration and “in some cases downright deliberately false allegations”. Mawrey made a series of findings against Mr Rahman, who was born in Bangladesh in 1965. Rahman was not in court to hear Mawrey’s verdict. But he said the judgment had come as a shock, and he was taking further legal advice. |