2 hours ago
5
The communities secretary, Steve Reed, has called a meeting with officials overseeing the running of Tower Hamlets council as concerns about the governance of the east London authority continue.
Envoys were sent to Tower Hamlets after a team of government-commissioned inspectors published a report last November that uncovered a “toxic” and secretive culture dominated by the inner circle of the local mayor, Lutfur Rahman.
It is understood Reed plans to meet the envoys to discuss their work so far, and to find out whether they think there has been sufficient change in the council and what else could be done.
Rahman, a former Labour leader of the council, first became mayor in 2010 as an independent. He was removed from office in 2015 and banned for five years from standing for mayor after an election commissioner found him guilty of electoral fraud.
He was re-elected in 2022 under the banner of his Aspire party, which has a small majority of councillors on the authority.
The planned meeting follows a letter to the council from Reed, who said he was appalled to learn that two Tower Hamlets councillors, one with Aspire and a former Aspire member who now sits as an independent, were seeking to become parliamentary candidates in Bangladesh.
“I am appalled that any councillor elected by local people to serve their interests would even consider abandoning that commitment to campaign in another country,” he wrote in the letter, which the Guardian has seen.
“I am particularly disappointed that Tower Hamlets councillors would consider doing so while the council, with the support from my envoys, is on a significant improvement journey that requires a dedicated and fully engaged leadership to grip and deliver the necessary change.”
An initial progress report by the three envoys published in July welcomed the steps the council was taking to improve its performance but also noted a perceived lack of cooperation from the mayor’s office.
“We have not always felt that staff have prioritised making time for meetings with the envoys, and meeting some individuals has taken longer than it needs to,” they wrote. “We are particularly keen to meet the wider mayor’s office and advisors.”
The team is expected to publish another report by the end of the year, before elections across all London councils next May. But Reed’s decision to call the envoys in now is seen as indicating the level of concern about a seeming lack of progress.
Opposition councillors have raised a number of issues with the way the council has been run in recent weeks, not least the decision to allow the Aspire councillor Sabina Khan to stand for election in Bangladesh.
after newsletter promotion
The Labour councillor Marc Francis said: “While there has been activity, there is little sign of any real improvement. Labour councillors continue to have serious concerns about the ‘culture of patronage’ and lack of evenhandedness in the town hall and the impact this is having on the services our residents rely on.”
A Tower Hamlets spokesperson said: “The envoys keep the minister updated on the council’s improvement journey and we continue to work in partnership with them to make further progress.
“The mayor has written to the minister clarifying such matters and inviting him to come to Tower Hamlets to work together on further improvements including the pioneering policies we have introduced to support residents with cost of living pressures, as well as our ongoing efforts to bring our community together in face of attempts to sow division.”
An Aspire spokesperson said: “Sabina Khan has not been selected as a candidate to stand for election in Bangladesh. If she is selected as a candidate, she would of course be expected to resign, and if she did not stand down, the whip would be removed.”
