Convicted electoral fraudster may return

AN ELECTION fraudster could be returned as a mayor tomorrow.

Lutfur Rahman is back on the ballot paper in east London, six years after he was removed from office after being found guilty of polling offences.

He was banned from standing for five years but has set up a new party, Aspire, so he can run for mayor of Tower Hamlets.

Lord Hayward, a Tory peer and elections expert, said: ‘There is every possibility that both he and Aspire could do very well.

‘He’s been running on a platform of saying he has not been found guilty of anything. He has been found guilty by the High Court of this land of a series of electoral offences. It concerns me and depresses me.

‘He was banned for five years which was the maximum penalty, but sadly I believe it is inadequate.’

Mr Rahman, a former Labour councillor, became the first directly-elected mayor of Tower Hamlets when he stood as an independent in 2010. He was re-elected in 2014.

But he became the first such mayor to be removed when the result was declared null and void. In 2015 the election court found Mr Rahman personally guilty, or guilty by his agents, of charges including making false statements about a candidate, of administering council grants in a way that constituted electoral bribery and of spiritual intimidation of voters.

Mr Rahman was behind the formation of the Aspire party in 2018, whose candidates were his supporters. Last month he said: ‘I have always maintained my innocence.’