Aspire | |
---|---|
![]() | |
Leader | Lutfur Rahman |
Treasurer | Jahed Choudhury |
Nominating Officer | Lilian Collins |
Founded | 26 January 2018 |
Preceded by | Tower Hamlets First |
Headquarters | 28 Castlemain Street Whitechapel London |
Ideology | |
Political position | Left-wing [4] |
Tower Hamlets Council | 24 / 45 |
Aspire is a local political party in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, England, formed by Lutfur Rahman and councillors elected as members of his Tower Hamlets First party. After Tower Hamlets First was removed from the register of political parties following voting fraud and malpractice, its councillors formed the Tower Hamlets Independent Group (THIG). [5] [6] After some defections, the remaining Tower Hamlets Independent Group councillors registered formally as a political party in 2018. [7] Most of its elected members were former Labour Party members, with a few exceptions.
It was the largest political opposition on Tower Hamlets Council before the 2018 May elections and then gained majority control of the council in the 2022 election, winning 24 of the council's 45 seats. Rahman was also re-elected mayor in those elections.
Tower Hamlets First was established by Lutfur Rahman on 18 September 2013. Formerly the Labour leader of Tower Hamlets council, Rahman had been elected as Mayor in 2010. The party stood candidates in the 2014 Tower Hamlets Council election, [8] [9] 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". [10] The party was removed from the list of political parties maintained by the Electoral Commission on 29 April 2015. [11]
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 Independent Group to form the competing People's Alliance group. [12] The remaining THIG councillors then became Aspire.[ citation needed ]
Although then barred from running for elected office himself, Rahman was behind the party. Aspire was his second attempt at a new party after an application under the name 'Tower Hamlets Together' [13] was rejected. [14]
The ideology of the party is self-described as a form of democratic socialism. [15] It has been criticized for only fielding candidates of Bangladeshi heritage for the 2022 Tower Hamlets local election, with only three of their candidates being female. [16] [17] Shortly after these elections, new allegations over voter intimidation, family voting and impersonating voters were raised by independent observers. [18]
Between its formation and the May 2018 elections, Aspire councillors occupied 10 of the 45 council seats on the Tower Hamlets Council. [19]
Name | Ward |
---|---|
Ohid Ahmed | Lansbury |
Suluk Ahmed | Spitalfields & Banglatown |
Mahbub Alam | St Dunstan's |
Gulam Kibria Choudhury | Poplar |
Harun Miah | Shadwell |
Md. Maium Miah | Canary Wharf |
Mohammed Mufti Miah | Bromley North |
Muhammad Ansar Mustaquim | St Peter's |
Oliur Rahman | Stepney Green |
Gulam Robbani | Spitalfields & Banglatown |
Ohid Ahmed was a senior Labour Party councillor as a cabinet member between 2002 and 2010. [20] He was also the Labour Party candidate for West Suffolk in 2010, [21] and Deputy Mayor of Tower Hamlets between 2010 and 2014. [22] Harun Miah was formerly a Respect Party Councillor. [23] Maium Miah was formerly a Conservative Party councillor for Millwall before joining Tower Hamlets First, and stood in Canary Wharf ward in 2014. [24]
The party's general secretary, Lillian Collins, was formerly Labour's chair in Tower Hamlets. [25]
Ohid Ahmed stood in the 2018 election for directly elected Mayor of Tower Hamlets, [26] coming third behind Labour and the People's Alliance of Tower Hamlets, a group that had earlier split from the Tower Hamlets Independent Group. Ahmed was endorsed by Rahman. [25]
On 4 April 2018, Aspire launched its campaign for the borough elections in Tower Hamlets, [25] with a full slate of 45 council candidates. [27] It won no seats.
Aspire stood in two council by-elections in Tower Hamlets on 7 February 2019, with Harun Miah winning the one in Shadwell ward and Ohid Ahmed coming second in Lansbury ward. [28]
On 12 August 2021, Aspire stood in the by-election to the Weavers ward via candidate Kabir Ahmed winning 47%. He had served some years as Councillor until 2014. That election followed the death of the Labour incumbent. [29]
Following a five-year ban from holding public office, Lutfur Rahman was again elected as Mayor of Tower Hamlets in the May 2022 local elections, defeating Labour incumbent John Biggs. [30] Aspire was also successful in the Borough Council election, winning a majority with 24 out of 45 seats. [31]
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 councillors in local government.
John Robert Biggs is a British Labour Co-op politician who was Mayor of Tower Hamlets between 2015 and 2022.
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Mohammad Lutfur Rahman is a Bangladesh-born 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 forced to resign.
Tower Hamlets London Borough Council, the local authority for the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, is elected every four years.
Tower Hamlets London Borough Council, also known as Tower Hamlets Council, is the local authority for the London Borough of Tower Hamlets in Greater London, England. It is a London borough council, one of 32 in London. The council has been under the majority control of local party Aspire since 2022. It has been led by a directly elected mayor since 2010. The council is based at Tower Hamlets Town Hall on Whitechapel Road.
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 council. The position is different from the previous largely ceremonial, annually appointed mayors of Tower Hamlets, who became known as the 'Chair of Council' after the first election and are now known as the 'Speaker of Council'. The second election was held on 22 May 2014, the same day as the Tower Hamlets Council election, other United Kingdom local elections, and European Parliament elections, but the election result was declared void by the election court. A by-election was held on 11 June 2015.
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Elections to Tower Hamlets London Borough Council took place on 22 May 2014, the same day as other United Kingdom local elections, the election of the directly elected mayor of Tower Hamlets, and the European Parliament elections. Voting in Blackwall and Cubitt Town Ward was postponed due to the death of a candidate. The Mayoral election is particularly notable for the voiding of the result due to widespread corruption.
There were local government elections in London on Thursday 22 May 2014. All councillor seats on the 32 London borough councils were up for election. The electorates of Hackney, Lewisham, Newham and Tower Hamlets also elected their executive mayors, who operate in place of council leaders in those boroughs. Ward changes took place in Hackney, Kensington and Chelsea, and Tower Hamlets, which reduced the total number of councillors by 10 to 1,851. Both the mayoral and councillor elections are four-yearly.
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Erlam and others v Rahman and another [2015] EWHC 1215 (QB) is an English election court case challenging the 2014 election of Lutfur Rahman as the Mayor of the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. On 23 April 2015, Election Commissioner Richard Mawrey voided Rahman's election under the Representation of the People Act 1983 on the grounds of corrupt and illegal practices by him and his agents, and general corruption so extensively prevailing so to reasonably supposed to have affected the election. Rahman's official election agent Alibor Choudhury was ordered to vacate his own office of councillor in the ward of Stepney Green for being guilty of corrupt and illegal practices.
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.
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