The 2022 Tower Hamlets London Borough Council election is due to take place on 5 May 2022. All 45 members of

Tower Hamlets London Borough Council Tower Hamlets London Borough Council is the local authority for the London Borough of Tower Hamlets in Greater London, England. The council is unusual in that its executive function is controlled by a directly elected mayor of Tower Hamlets, curr ...

will be elected. The elections will take place alongside local elections in the other London boroughs and elections to local authorities across the United Kingdom. In the previous election in 2018, the Labour Party regained control of the council from no overall control, winning 42 out of the 45 seats with the

Conservative Party The Conservative Party is a name used by many political parties around the world. These political parties are generally right-wing though their exact ideologies can range from center-right to far-right. Political parties called The Conservative P ...

forming the principal opposition with two of the remaining three seats. The election will coincide with an election for the

mayor of Tower Hamlets The mayor of Tower Hamlets is the directly elected mayor of Tower Hamlets London Borough Council in east London, England. The first election for this position occurred on 21 October 2010, taking on the executive function of the borough counci ...

Background

History

Tower Hamlets London UK local election 2018 map

The thirty-two

London boroughs The London boroughs are the 32 local authority districts that together with the City of London make up the administrative area of Greater London; each is governed by a London borough council. The present London boroughs were all created at t ...

were established in 1965 by the

London Government Act 1963 The London Government Act 1963 (c. 33) is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, which created Greater London and a new local government structure within it. The Act significantly reduced the number of local government districts in the ...

. They are the principal authorities in Greater London and have responsibilities including education, housing, planning, highways, social services, libraries, recreation, waste, environmental health and revenue collection. Some powers are shared with the

Greater London Authority The Greater London Authority (GLA), colloquially known by the metonym "City Hall", is the devolved regional governance body of Greater London. It consists of two political branches: the executive Mayoralty (currently led by Sadiq Khan) and the ...

, which also manages passenger transport, police, and fire. Since its formation, Tower Hamlets has generally been under

Labour Labour or labor may refer to: * Childbirth, the delivery of a baby * Labour (human activity), or work ** Manual labour, physical work ** Wage labour, a socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer ** Organized labour and the labour ...

control. The

SDP–Liberal Alliance The SDP–Liberal Alliance was a centrist and social liberal political and electoral alliance in the United Kingdom. Formed by the Social Democratic Party (SDP) and the Liberal Party, the SDP–Liberal Alliance was established in 1981, contestin ...

won a majority of seats in the 1986 election, and the newly formed Liberal Democrats won a majority in the 1990 election. There was also a period of no overall control from 2014 to 2018. From 1990 to 2006, all councillors elected to the council were Labour or Liberal Democrats. In the 2006 election, Labour maintained its majority by winning 26 seats, but the new

Respect Party The Respect Party was a left-wing to far-left, socialist political party active in the United Kingdom between 2004 and 2016. At the height of its success in 2007, the party had one Member of Parliament (MP) in the House of Commons and nineteen ...

won twelve seats, with the Conservatives on seven and the Liberal Democrats on six. In the 2010 election, Respect lost all but one of its seats with Labour winning 41, the Conservatives winning eight and the Liberal Democrats winning one. Respect were the only party to advocate a change in executive arrangements at the council to introduce a directly elected

. A mayoral petition was successfully arranged by the Respect activist Abjol Miah, which was successful. The Labour councillor Lutfur Rahman, who had been leader of the council from 2008 until his was replaced in 2010 after a

Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network operated by the state-owned enterprise, state-owned Channel Four Television Corporation. It began its transmission on 2 November 1982 and was established to provide a four ...

documentary linked him to the

Islamic Forum of Europe The Islamic Forum of Europe (IFE) is an Islamic organisation based in the United Kingdom with affiliates in Europe. He was removed as the candidate by the

National Executive Committee of the Labour Party The National Executive Committee (NEC) is the governing body of the UK Labour Party, setting the overall strategic direction of the party and policy development. Its composition has changed over the years, and includes representatives of affilia ...

after "very serious allegations" about the selection. He subsequently ran as an

independent candidate An independent or non-partisan politician is a politician not affiliated with any political party or bureaucratic association. There are numerous reasons why someone may stand for office as an independent. Some politicians have political views th ...

with support from Respect. Rahman was elected in the October 2010 election with more than half of the vote in the first round. Rahman established a new political party called

Tower Hamlets First Tower Hamlets First was a British political party represented in Tower Hamlets London Borough Council, which was launched to contest the 2014 United Kingdom local elections, 2014 local elections in the Borough. During its existence, it was the s ...

in 2013. He ran for re-election as the Tower Hamlets First candidate in 2014, being re-elected in the second round against the Labour candidate John Biggs. In the concurrent council election, Tower Hamlets First won 18 seats, with Labour on 22 and the Conservatives on 5, resulting in no overall control of the council. In 2015, Rahman was removed from office and his election was declared void after he was found guilty of electoral fraud. He was barred from seeking re-election for five years. Tower Hamlets First was de-registered as a political party by the Electoral Commission shortly after. In the 2015 re-run of the mayoral election, Rahman endorsed the independent candidate

Rabina Khan Rabina Khan ( bn, রবিনা খান; born 15 September 1972) is a Bangladeshi-born British writer, politician, former councillor for Shadwell and Cabinet Member for Housing in Tower Hamlets Council, community worker and author of ''Ayesh ...

. Khan had been elected as a Labour councillor in 2010 but had been suspended for supporting Rahman's initial 2010 election, and had been re-elected in the 2014 council election as a Tower Hamlets First councillor. Biggs won the election. The former Tower Hamlets First councillors formed the

Tower Hamlets Independent Group Aspire is a political party in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, England, formed by Lutfur Rahman and councillors elected as members of his Tower Hamlets First. After Tower Hamlets First was removed from the register of political parties fo ...

. Khan formed the breakaway group the

People's Alliance of Tower Hamlets The People's Alliance of Tower Hamlets (PATH) was a minor political party in Tower Hamlets, London, England composed of councillors who had formerly been members of Tower Hamlets First and then the Tower Hamlets Independent Group. The group was f ...

(PATH) with some other Tower Hamlets Independent Group councillors, which was formally registered in 2018. The remaining Tower Hamlets Independent Group councillors formed the new party Aspire. In the most recent mayoral election in 2018, Khan stood as the PATH candidate, coming second, and Ohid Ahmed stood for Aspire. Ahmed had been endorsed by Rahman. Biggs was successfully re-elected for the Labour Party with 48.4% of the vote in the first round and 72.7% of the vote after second preferences were taken into account. In the concurrent council election, Labour won 42 seats with 46.1% of the vote, while the Conservatives won two seats with 9.9% of the vote across the borough. Khan was elected as a councillor for PATH, with her party winning 11.3% of the vote across the borough. Aspire lost all their representation, winning no seats with 15.4% of the vote. The Liberal Democrats received 8.6% of the vote and the

Green Party A green party is a formally organized political party based on the principles of green politics, such as social justice, environmentalism and nonviolence. Greens believe that these issues are inherently related to one another as a foundation ...

received 7.9% of the vote, but neither won any seats.

Council term

Rabina Khan disbanded PATH in August 2018 and switched to the Liberal Democrats. Mohammed Pappu, a councillor for Blackwall and Cubitt town, was suspended from the Labour Party in October 2018 after sharing antisemitic posts on social media. In the following month, he apologised, saying that he had not read the posts properly and offered to undergo training. A Labour councillor for Lansbury ward, Mohammad Harun, resigned in December 2018 after Biggs ordered an investigation into allegations of housing fraud. A Labour councillor for Shadwell ward, Ruhul Amin, resigned in January 2019 because he was moving to Bangladesh. Both by-elections took place in February 2019, with Rajib Ahmed holding Lansbury for Labour and Ohid Ahmed coming in second place for Aspire. The Aspire candidate Mohammad Harun Miah won the by-election in Shadwell, with the Labour candidate Asik Rahman coming in second place. Asik Rahman had apologised during the campaign for liking the Facebook page of

Zakir Naik Zakir Abdul Karim Naik (born 18 October 1965) is an Indian Islamic televangelist and public orator who focuses on comparative religion. He is the founder and president of the Islamic Research Foundation (IRF) and the Peace TV Network. In 20 ...

, a preacher who was banned from entering the UK. The leader of the Conservatives on the council, Andrew Wood, resigned from his party to sit as an independent in February 2020 while remaining in the Conservative group on the council. He cited the Conservative government's approach to

Brexit Brexit (; a portmanteau of "British exit") was the withdrawal of the United Kingdom (UK) from the European Union (EU) at 23:00 GMT on 31 January 2020 (00:00 1 February 2020 CET).The UK also left the European Atomic Energy Community (EAEC or ...

and decision to override guidance to approve a controversial housing development in the borough. John Pierce, a Labour councillor for Weavers ward, died in June 2021. He had been first elected in 2012. A by-election to fill the seat was held in August 2021, which was won by the Aspire candidate Kabir Ahmed. A Conservative councillor credited Aspire's victory to the Labour council's implementation of low traffic neighbourhood schemes, which Ahmed promised to end if Aspire won the 2022 council elections.

Mayoral referendum

Tower Hamlets held a referendum in May 2021 on whether to maintain the system of directly electing a mayor, or to return to the leader-and-cabinet model where councillors elect a leader. Biggs and the Labour Party, the Conservatives, the Liberal Democrats including Rabina Khan, and the Green Party campaigned in favour of ending the mayoral system, while Rahman campaigned to keep it. The outcome of the referendum was to continue with the mayoral system, with 77.8% of votes in favour.

Campaign

Council election

The communities minister

Kemi Badenoch Olukemi Olufunto Badenoch ( ; née Adegoke, 2 January 1980) is a British politician serving as Secretary of State for International Trade, President of the Board of Trade and Minister for Women and Equalities since 2022. She previously served in ...

wrote to the

Metropolitan Police The Metropolitan Police Service (MPS), formerly and still commonly known as the Metropolitan Police (and informally as the Met Police, the Met, Scotland Yard, or the Yard), is the territorial police force responsible for law enforcement and ...

and

Electoral Commission An election commission is a body charged with overseeing the implementation of electioneering process of any country. The formal names of election commissions vary from jurisdiction to jurisdiction, and may be styled an electoral commission, a c ...

about concerns over the possibility of election fraud and family voting in Tower Hamlets.

Mayoral election

The Labour mayor of Tower Hamlets, John Biggs, is seeking re-election. In January 2022, the Liberal Democrat councillor

was announced as her party's candidate for the mayoralty. In the same month, the independent councillor Andrew Wood, who had resigned from the Conservative group in 2020, announced he would stand for election as both a councillor and mayor. Wood said the council should spend more of its reserves building homes, schools and bridges. The former mayor of the borough, Lutfur Rahman, announced his candidacy for the Aspire party in February 2022. Rahman's five-year ban from standing for election, having been found guilty by an election court of "corrupt and illegal practices", had elapsed. He was endorsed at his formal campaign launch in March by the former mayor of London

Ken Livingstone Kenneth Robert Livingstone (born 17 June 1945) is an English politician who served as the Leader of the Greater London Council (GLC) from 1981 until the council was abolished in 1986, and as Mayor of London from the creation of the office i ...

and the peer Pola Uddin. Elliott Weaver is standing as the Conservative mayoral candidate.

Electoral process

Tower Hamlets, like other London borough councils, elects all of its councillors at once every four years. The previous election took place in 2018. The election will take place by multi-member

first-past-the-post voting In a first-past-the-post electoral system (FPTP or FPP), formally called single-member plurality voting (SMP) when used in single-member districts or informally choose-one voting in contrast to ranked voting, or score voting, voters cast their ...

, with each ward being represented by two or three councillors. Electors will have as many votes as there are councillors to be elected in their ward, with the top two or three being elected. All registered electors (

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

Irish Irish may refer to: Common meanings * Someone or something of, from, or related to: ** Ireland, an island situated off the north-western coast of continental Europe ***Éire, Irish language name for the isle ** Northern Ireland, a constituent unit ...

Commonwealth A commonwealth is a traditional English term for a political community founded for the common good. Historically, it has been synonymous with "republic". The noun "commonwealth", meaning "public welfare, general good or advantage", dates from the ...

and

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been des ...

citizens) living in London aged 18 or over will be entitled to vote in the election. People who live at two addresses in different councils, such as university students with different term-time and holiday addresses, are entitled to be registered for and vote in elections in both local authorities. Voting in-person at polling stations will take place from 7:00 to 22:00 on election day, and voters will be able to apply for postal votes or proxy votes in advance of the election.

Previous council composition

File:Tower Hamlets Council 2018.svg, File:United Kingdom Tower Hamlets London Borough Council 2021.svg,

References

{{Greater London elections Council elections in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets

Tower Hamlets The London Borough of Tower Hamlets is a London borough covering much of the traditional East End. It was formed in 1965 from the merger of the former metropolitan boroughs of Stepney, Poplar, and Bethnal Green. 'Tower Hamlets' was originally ...