Lutfur Rahman (British politician)

Mohammed Lutfur Rahman (Bengali: মোহাম্মদ লুৎফুর রহমান; born 12 September 1965) is a British politician and former solicitor serving as the directly elected mayor of the London Borough of Tower Hamlets for the Aspire party since 2022, having previously held the post from 2010 to 2015 until being found guilty of electoral fraud and disqualified from office. Lutfur Rahman was the leader of Tower Hamlets London Borough Council from 2008 to 2010 for the Labour Party, and was initially selected as that party's candidate for the 2010 mayoral election. After allegations of links to a fundamentalist group and of signing up ineligible voters for the selection process, he was removed as Labour's candidate, and left the party to contest and win the election as an independent candidate. He was re-elected at the 2014 mayoral election as the candidate for Tower Hamlets First, but the result of this election was declared null and void on 23 April 2015 when the Election Court officially reported Lutfur Rahman to be "personally guilty" of "corrupt or illegal practices, or both" (electoral fraud) under the Representation of the People Act 1983. He was thus removed from his office with immediate effect and was also personally debarred from standing for elected office until 2021. He was also struck off as a solicitor. In 2018 he was involved in the founding of a new party, Aspire, and at the May 2022 local elections, following the expiration of his ban, he successfully stood for election to the mayoralty as the Aspire candidate; the party also took the majority of seats on the council.