Tower Hamlets mayor starts new job

THE FIRST directly elected of Tower Hamlets took up his �75,000 a-year job at the town hall today.

Independent Lutfur Rahman, who lives in Spitalfields is now in charge of a �1 billion budget at tower Hamlets.

He easily won the first mayoral election with 23,283 votes, 51 per cent of the total, beating Labour into second place with just 11,254 votes.

Solicitor Mr Rahman had been the Labour party’s candidate after challenging his exclusion from the short list at a High Court hearing, but was dramatically dropped by Labour’s National Executive after it received a dossier of complaints from two Labour councillors.

Eight other Labour councillors came out in support of Mr Rahman and Labour’s London mayoral candidate Ken Livingstone also took to the streets of Tower Hamlets calling for voters to pick him as their second preference.

One of Mr Rahman’s first jobs will be to pick his Cabinet to help him make key decisions and decide on policy.