THE new council leader at Tower Hamlets in East London has just appointed his cabinet, the East London Advertiser can reveal. Helal Abbas, who was elected at the ruling Labour group’s annual meeting on Monday, has put together a 10-member cabinet which takes over on May 26

By Mike Brooke

THE new council leader at Tower Hamlets in East London has just appointed his cabinet, the East London Advertiser can reveal.

Helal Abbas, who was elected at the ruling Labour group’s annual meeting on Monday, has put together a 10-member cabinet which takes over from the controversial Lutfur Rahman administration on May 26.

Half the cabinet are white non-Asian, redressing the balance as the authority strives to present a cohesive one Tower Hamlets’ image to the world. Three women are included.

The authority has run the gauntlet of media criticism over links with the Islamic Forum for Europe and dominance of “Bengali village politics” running the Town Hall.

The new Deputy Leader is Labour stalwart Josh Peck, who was elected unopposed with Cllr Abbas on Monday.

The rest of the cabinet was appointed after a group meeting late last night.

David Edgar, embattled housing chief during the unpopular handover of housing estates to private landlords, has been brought back into the cabinet after four years to take charge of resources.

Former council leader Denise Jones returns to head Culture, while Marc Francis remains Housing chief and Rachel Saunders come in to head Health & Wellbeing.

Shiria Khatun gets Children’s services, Sirajul Islam Regeneration, Abdal Ullah Crime Reduction and Shahed Ali Environment.