Local election 2022: Lutfur Rahman wins Tower Hamlets mayoral vote
Alastair Lockhart, LDRS
Lutfur Rahman speaks after being elected Tower Hamlets mayor - Credit: PA
Lutfur Rahman has become Tower Hamlets mayor once again – seven years after he was ousted from office.
Mr Rahman was removed as mayor in 2015 and banned from standing for five years by an election court.
But running again this year as the candidate for the Aspire party, he pulled off an astonishing comeback.
Mr Rahman beat the incumbent Labour mayor, John Biggs, who had previously succeeded him.
He urged people to “judge me on what we will do for you” after his election.
“I want to rebuild Tower Hamlets, I want to invest in our future and give our people a better future than we had in the last seven years,” Mr Rahman said.
Pointing to his time in the role, he said: “Judge me and my administration on our record, what we’ve delivered in the first term."
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Mr Rahman won the first round of voting with 39,533 votes – narrowly missing out on being elected immediately – while Mr Biggs won 27,894.
In the second round, Mr Rahman secured victory with 40,804 votes in total while Mr Biggs trailed behind with 33,487 votes.
The results of the borough’s ward council elections are to be announced tomorrow (May 7).
Will Tuckley, returning officer for Tower Hamlets and the council’s chief executive, said: “I’d like to congratulate Lutfur Rahman on his election victory and I look forward to helping him deliver on his priorities as mayor for the people of Tower Hamlets.
“Running elections involves an incredible amount of hard work by our elections team, the Metropolitan Police and many others and I would like to thank everyone who has been involved for working so diligently from the early planning stages, through to polling day and the count today."
Additional reporting by Press Association.
