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Who will control Tower Hamlets?

16Bangla Mirror:

The fight is on for the battle to become the Mayor of Tower Hamlets now that the General Election is out of the way.  After a huge defeat in General Election, Labour Party has decided to spend its full force to capture the borough.

Labour’s John Biggs was first to declare his name two days after last month’s High Court ruling which barred Mayor Lutfur Rahman from office and declared the 2014 election void.

Senior party leaders including Tessa Jowell, Yvette Cooper, Sadiq Khan and Rushanara Ali were among those who attended Sunday’s Labour campaign launch at the Scarlet restaurant in Spitalfields.

They were there to back the London Assembly member and former Tower Hamlets council leader in an election given top priority by Labour’s National Executive following last week’s defeat in the General Election.

Anti-corruption campaigner Andy Erlam, who led the election petition along with Angela Moffat and Ajmol Hussain, revealed he was in the fight just days after his legal victory.

Andy Erlam fired the first shot on last Friday with claims that he had been approached by Labour to stand down.

However, The Conservative Party waited till the General Election was done before announcing their candidate.

Tower Hamlets Council’s Conservative Opposition group leader Peter Golds was selected as the Mayoral candidate at the Bow Belles venue on Monday on 11 May night.

Peter Golds wants to scrap the council’s East End Life weekly newspaper which he says had already been outlawed by the government and the former Communities Secretary Eric Pickles.

He also wants a re-examine on plans of converting the old listed London Hospital site in Whitechapel into a new town hall complex, which the former mayor Rahman bought in a £9 million deal with the NHS.

On the other hand, former Mayor Lutfur Rahman announced the candidacy of Rabina Khan as Mayor of Tower Hamlets as independent, as Lutfur’s party Tower Hamlets First was de-registered as a recognised political party by the Electoral Commission after last month’s High Court ruling.

Khan told the ex-mayor’s supporters at a rally in Mile End last month: “Make sure your voice is still here and justice is still here in June.”

The Greens has announced John Foster as a candidate for the post of Executive Mayor of Tower Hamlets. John Foster plans to lead a campaign to scrap the post of Tower Hamlets executive mayor and will work towards a referendum on this issue.

The Liberal Democrats have selected Elaine Bagshaw for the Tower Hamlets Mayor by-election following Lutfur Rahman’s election.