Mohammad Lutfur Rahman (Bengali: মোহাম্মদ লুৎফুর রহমান) is a Bangladesh-born British politician and former solicitor serving as the directly elected mayor of the London Borough of Tower Hamlets for the Aspire party since 2022, having previously held the post from 2010 to 2015 until being found guilty of electoral fraud and forced to resign.
Lutfur Rahman was born in East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) to Bengali Muslim parents from the village of Sikandarpur in Balaganj, Sylhet District, and moved to the United Kingdom at an early age.
[11] Lutfur Rahman's leadership had come 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".
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.
[21] Lutfur Rahman had a radical agenda, with a promise to build 1,000 homes a year, ring-fence frontline services, keep social care free and universal, and pay the living wage.
[31] Andrew Gilligan in a Channel 4 Dispatches documentary in March 2010, and in a series of Daily Telegraph blogs and articles, accused Lutfur Rahman of achieving the council leadership with the help of the Islamic Forum of Europe.
[21][37] Interviewed for The Guardian in October 2010, Lutfur Rahman dismissed the complaint and insisted that, like the electoral campaign, he meets all his own expenses and legal costs.
[40] In November 2012, Lutfur Rahman overruled the recommendation of his councillors that Henry Moore's Draped Seated Woman 1957–58, 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.
[46] Lutfur Rahman apologised for providing a court character reference for the convicted sex offender Zamal Uddin,[47] stating that he had been misled by the defendant's family.
[47] In 2014, Lutfur Rahman provided a "glowing" court reference to Mahee Ferdous Jalil, a convicted insurance fraudster who was subsequently sentenced to three years in jail for money laundering.
[48][better source needed] In March 2014, just weeks before council elections in Tower Hamlets, the BBC aired a Panorama programme making serious allegations about his suitability for office.
[51] The Times reported: "A beleaguered mayor raised the spectre of civil war in his borough as government inspectors swooped on his offices hunting for evidence of fraud, favours and unlawful spending.
[56] Lutfur Rahman's re-election as Mayor of Tower Hamlets in 2014 was challenged by four residents of the borough in an election petition under the Representation of the People Act 1983.
[57] Lutfur Rahman sought unsuccessfully to strike out the case, but did persuade the High Court to order the petitioners to produce further particulars of what was alleged.
[36][59] Lutfur Rahman and his supporters were found to have used religious intimidation through local imams and vote-rigging, as well as falsely branding his Labour rival a racist to gain power.
[66] In November 2020, it was reported that Lutfur Rahman was poised to return to local politics by campaigning to retain the mayoral system in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets.
[68][69] In the Borough Council elections held on the same day, Aspire candidates won 24 of the 45 seats and therefore a majority, reducing the Labour Group to 19 members.
[70] In February 2023, the Chief Executive of the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy (CIPFA) raised the prospect of the authorities having to intervene in the mismanagement of the council under Lutfur Rahman.
[71] In April 2023 Transport for London (TfL) announced the withholding of £1million of annual funding if Lutfur Rahman followed through on a manifesto commitment to end the borough Low Traffic Network schemes.