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 formed by Cllr
Rabina Khan and her husband Cllr Aminur Khan as a split from the Tower Hamlets Independent Group in November 2016.
Khan disbanded the party in 29 August 2018 and later joined the
Liberal Democrats.
Background
Tower Hamlets First was established by
Lutfur Rahman on 18 September 2013. The party stood candidates in the
2014 Tower Hamlets Council election,
where it won 18 out of 45 seats, becoming the second largest party on Tower Hamlets Council, and the fifth largest political party out of all London borough councils. The party was suspended in 23 April 2015, after an
Election Court report that found Rahman "personally guilty of 'corrupt or illegal practices' or both" with the party labelled as a "one-man band". The party was removed from the
list of political parties maintained by the
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 ...
on 29 April 2015.
Following the dissolution of Tower Hamlets First, the majority of former party members established the
Tower Hamlets Independent Group (THIG) to co-ordinate activity on the council. Six members subsequently left the Tower Hamlets Independents to form the competing People's Alliance group.
Cllr.
Rabina Khan formally registered the People's Alliance of Tower Hamlets with the
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 ...
on 26 February 2018.
Initial representation
Until the elections on 3 May 2018, the People's Alliance of Tower Hamlets had 6 out of the 45 Council seats in the
Tower Hamlets Council.
Rabina Khan had previously been elected as a
Labour Party candidate and then as a Tower Hamlets First candidate. Abjol Miah was previously elected as a
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 ...
councillor.
2018 elections and party disbands
Khan stood in the
2018 elections for directly elected Mayor of Tower Hamlets, coming second, and the party stood in all but one ward at the 2018
borough elections. Khan was re-elected as a Councillor, but the party won no other seats.
In August, Khan disbanded the party with her and colleagues switching to the
Liberal Democrats.
Former PATH councillor Abjol Miah stood as a Liberal Democrat candidate in a by-election for the Shadwell ward on 7 February 2019. However, he was suspended from the party the day of the vote for sharing an antisemitic video on Twitter and Facebook in 2014 by
David Duke
David Ernest Duke (born July 1, 1950) is an American politician, neo-Nazi, conspiracy theorist, and former grand wizard of the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan. From 1989 to 1992, he was a member of the Louisiana House of Representatives for the ...
.
See also
*
Aspire (political party)
References
{{Reflist
External links
People's Alliance of Tower Hamlets registration
2018 establishments in England
Political parties established in 2018
Political parties disestablished in 2018
Locally based political parties in England
Tower Hamlets First