As political comebacks go, it’s right up there. On May 5, Lutfur Rahman was elected Mayor of Tower Hamlets a mere seven years after he was ousted from office and barred for five years, having been being found guilty by a special electoral court of corrupt and illegal practices during the 2014 elections. His new Aspire Party also took control of the council.
But, as our political and deputy political editors Nicholas Cecil and David Bond reveal, a new report by the independent electoral monitoring group Democracy Volunteers, which observed voting at 96 of the borough’s 109 ballot boxes, found that while some improvements had been secured since 2014, further work was necessary.
The report points to:
- General concerns over large, intimidating crowds outside polling stations.
- Extremely high levels of attempted family voting where family members are accompanied or directed by relatives on how to vote. The report found 85 per cent of those subjected to family voting were women.
- Concerns over personation, where a person assumes the identity of someone else to cast their vote. Observers said they witnessed half a dozen occasions when people presented screenshots of polling cards on mobiles in order to vote.
The report is to be handed over to the Electoral Commission, who said today: “We are still conducting our analysis of the polls, but at this stage we are not aware of allegations of personation relating to the elections in Tower Hamlets.”
Aspire councillor Kabir Ahmed said: “Aspire maintained strict discipline and oversight over its campaigners and ensured that they were familiar with the legal frame-work. We are glad that this election was not beset by the issues it was claimed affected previous ones.”
Elsewhere, this newsletter will always maintain a strict pr0-Patrick Vieira bias. Not only for the tackles and spectacular goals but for the time he popped into my bar-mitzvah party and kissed my mom on both cheeks.
Still, the Crystal Palace manager is in hot water for appearing to kick an Everton fan after being goaded during a pitch invasion. New footage, which you can watch here, shows the extent of the abuse to which he was subjected.
End of season pitch invasions, celebrating playoff wins or staving off relegation, are weirdly tolerated. But as we write in today’s leader column, footballers and managers are entitled to safe working conditions like everyone else. See the Billy Sharp incident, where a man has been arrested. And having spent £500m to barely stay up, I’m not sure what Everton fans have to celebrate quite so enthusiastically.
In the comment pages, Martha Gill says the rest of the UK will gradually get more like London, and that’s a good thing. She also highlights the number one rule of British politics since circa 2001: conduct your career anywhere near Boris Johnson and bad things will happen to it.
Harriet Johnson, barrister and author of Enough: The Violence Against Women and How to End It, warns that the Government’s proposals to do away with the Human Rights Act and replace it with a ‘Bill Of Rights’ is a threat to women.
And Jonn Elledge denounces the new Tube map as an abomination.
Finally, colleagues more fun than me have collated the things to do in London this weekend – from pizzas to pubs to ASMR exhibitions – as well as what to watch and listen to.
Have a lovely weekend.
