Earlier this month Steerpike revealed that Lutfur Rahman has returned to the frontline of Tower Hamlets politics, six years after becoming the first directly elected British mayor to be removed for electoral fraud. Now it appears another old face has re-emerged to join Rahman in his bid to save the Tower Hamlets mayoralty, ahead of a rumoured run for the position next year.
An image of Baroness Uddin is splashed on a new ‘Yes for Mayor: Power to the People’ leaflet currently being circulated in Tower Hamlets, extolling the virtues of the current council system which could be abolished in May’s referendum. Billing herself as a ‘life peer and former deputy leader of the council’ alongside a grinning picture of Rahman, Uddin says that the ‘Mayor will be decisive and effective’ and that that the existing process ‘has inspired greater voter engagement’. She adds that it has helped to ‘encourage a new generation to seek public office’ and that ‘with a diverse team and effective leadership, the Mayor can be a decisive force in shaping a cohesive local community’ – a bold claim given the borough’s well-documented issues with corruption.
Uddin herself is an interesting poster girl for new, cleaner politics having been forced to repay some £125,000 for wrongly claimed housing expenses – the largest sum during the 2009 scandal. It came after she designated a house owned by her brother as her ‘main home’ for four years and for a further five years said her main home was a flat in Maidstone, Kent. During that period her family home was actually a rented housing association house in east London. Her 18-month ban from the Lords broke records as the longest in the history of the Upper House while a report by the Lords Privileges and Conduct Committee said her housing claims were ‘made wrongly and in bad faith.’
The baroness of course also gave testimony at Rahman’s case in 2015 at which she told the court ‘my relationship with Lutfur is very limited’ and that ‘Lutfur and I have never really worked together’ except for ‘several community occasions we have shared a platform.’ Prosecuting barrister Francis Hoar took the chance to grill the peeress on her expenses claims and a BMW car she was given by a convicted insurance fraudster but failed to disclose on the Lords register of interests.
Uddin’s repeated protestations at such questions forced Commissioner Richard Mawrey QC to intervene at one point remarking: ‘I would be happier if you allowed the questions to be asked to you, not by you’ according to a transcript of the trial. Mawrey’s withering verdict on the decision of the defence to call Uddin was succinctly expressed in his case summary: ‘her credibility was comprehensively demolished by cross-examination about the six-figure expenses defalcation that had led to her suspension from the House of Lords.’
With leaders like this, Mr S wishes the people of Tower Hamlets the best of luck in May’s contest.
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