Tower hamlets

Friday

Katy Balls

The Julia Lopez Edition

33 min listen

Julia Lopez has been the Conservative MP for Hornchurch and Upminster since 2017. Her first political experience was working for the then-MP for the Cities of London and Westminster Mark Field, before she became a councillor for Tower Hamlets – working to improve the standards of an area marred in scandal and heightened community tensions. She went on to hold ministerial roles under three Prime Ministers and is now the PPS to Tory leader Kemi Badenoch. On the podcast, Julia talks to Katy Balls about the impact Margaret Thatcher had on the politics of her family, how she gained political experience touring London’s sewers and skyscrapers, and the mixed emotions of

Sunday

Steerpike

Lib Dems take a leaf out of Labour’s book

‘Secret election pact to stitch up Boris’ roars the front page of today’s Mail on Sunday. Ahead of Thursday’s local elections, Oliver Dowden, the Conservative party’s chairman, has written an angry letter to Sir Keir Starmer. He claims Labour is standing down candidates ‘in swathes of the country’ where Lib Dem support is strong to avoid splitting the anti-Tory vote. His fellow knight, Sir Ed Davey, is accused of doing the same where Labour is dominant elsewhere. Playing politics in an election campaign? It’ll never catch on. It marks a change of course from, er, Thursday when Labour were found to have spent a small fortune on online adverts attacking the Lib Dems. Messages on

Sunday

Steerpike

Lutfur Rahman expected to launch mayoral bid

Readers with long memories might recall the shambles of Tower Hamlets’ election night in 2014, when the count took more than five days to complete. The man who was re-elected as mayor that day was Lutfur Rahman who, the following year, earned the dubious distinction of being Britain’s first directly elected mayor to be removed after being found guilty of electoral fraud. Rahman was slapped with a five-year ban on standing for elected office after the Election Court reported him to be ‘personally guilty’ of ‘corrupt or illegal practices or both.’ Now though, Rahman’s ban is completed, and his former office is up for grabs in May. And, having first reported that the

Wednesday

Steerpike

The return of Lutfur Rahman

Remember Lutfur Rahman? In 2015 the then mayor of Tower Hamlets earned the dubious distinction of being Britain’s first directly elected mayor to be removed after being found guilty of electoral fraud. Rahman was slapped with a five-year ban on standing for elected office after the Election Court reported him to be ‘personally guilty’ of ‘corrupt or illegal practices or both.’ Judge Richard Mawrey said he’d ‘driven a coach and horses through election law and didn’t care’ while his party Tower Hamlets First, was ‘never really a party but the alter ego of Lutfur Rahman’. An aide was found guilty of corruption; supporters attempted to seek a spiritual influence through local