News

Lutfur Rahman has won re-election as Tower Hamlets mayor, several years after he was ousted from office. Rahman was removed as mayor of the east London borough in 2015 and banned from standing for five years by an election court. Standing again as the candidate for the Aspire party, Lutfur Rahman pulled off an extraordinary comeback on Friday. He beat …

No candidate has secured more than 50% of first preference votes. We’re now heading for a count of voters’ second preferences. Here are the results so far for first preference votes: Lutfur Rahman (Aspire) 39,533 47.0% (+32.7) John Biggs (Labour) 27,894 33.2% (-15.2) Rabina Khan (Lib Dem) 6,430 7.7% (+0.5) Elliott Weaver (Conservative) 4,269 5.1% (-2.8) Andrew Wood (Independent) 3,965 …

The mayor of Tower Hamlets, John Biggs, has been using council resources to politically campaign for Labour.  A Labour Party leaflet for John Biggs, which was posted through letterboxes on the Island and all the way to Bow, had the town hall phone number and John Biggs’ official email address.  Contact details on the Labour Party leaflet had mayors official email address. The council’s monitoring officer sent a …

A man has been arrested on suspicion of murder after the death of a man who was stabbed in Limehouse. Police were called by the London Ambulance Service on the morning of Saturday, 6 November after reports of a fight on St Anne’s Row, E14. Officers attended the location and discovered a 24-year-old man suffering a stab wound. He was …

A 36-year-old man was arrested on Friday, 20 August on suspicion of murder. He has been taken into custody at a police station in east London. Emergency services were called to Tower Hamlets Cemetery Park in Southern Grove E3, on August 16 following reports that a man had been found unresponsive. Officers and LAS paramedics attended the scene and found …

Do you recognise these men? Officers investigating a stabbing at West India Quay DLR station are today releasing CCTV images in connection. At around 1.50pm on Tuesday 3 August, the victim, a man, was approached by two men at the station. They engaged in a brief conversation before one of the men pulled out a flick knife, demanding his belongings. …

A murder investigation was launched after a man was found dead in Mile End. Emergency services were called to Tower Hamlets Cemetery Park, a unique and vital nature reserve and heritage site in Southern Grove E3, at 7am today (August 16) following reports that a man had been found unresponsive. Officers and LAS paramedics attended the scene and found a …

Following the Weavers by-election on Thursday 12 August, Kabir Ahmed of Aspire has been elected to serve as a councillor on Tower Hamlets Council for the Weavers Ward. The by-election was called after the sad passing of Cllr John Pierce in June. When the votes were counted, Cllr Ahmed had won a big victory. Ahmed polled 1,204 votes (46.5 per …

Apsana Begum, the MP for Poplar and Limehouse, has been cleared of charges of dishonestly failing to disclose information relating to her council housing application between 2013 and 2016. The council accused her of costing it almost £64,000 by not bringing to its notice that she was no longer living in overcrowded housing, as was the case when she first …

Tributes have been paid to a Bethnal Green councillor who has died suddenly after being found at his home at the age of 40. John Pierce, originally from Glanworth in Co Cork, Ireland, represented Weavers Ward since 2014. Amy Whitelock-Gibbs and Carlo Gibbs, both former Tower Hamlets councillors until 2018, issued a statement: “We are devastated and heartbroken to share the …

The police are appealing for information after a man pointed a handgun at a woman while another two women were assaulted. The incident happened just after 11pm on Saturday, 5 June at a restaurant in Pan Peninsula Square, E14. Three men entered the restaurant and approached three women. One of the males produced a handgun and pointed it at the …

Police were called just before 3am on Thursday, 3 June to reports of a car having been stolen on Priory Street. The vehicle is a white BMW 3 Series. The driver, with a woman in the passenger seat, was parking on Priory Street when two men approached the car on either side from St Leonard’s Street.  The men demanded the …

Campaigners have won a High Court battle over plans to remove a mulberry tree to make way for flats on the old London Chest Hospital site. The East End Preservation Society’s Geoffrey Juden led a legal challenge against Tower Hamlets Council to save the tree – said to be 400 years old. The High Court found the council’s planning committee …

Police are appealing for witnesses after a 15-year old male was stabbed after being chased through St John’s Park. The victim ran out on to Plevna Street, before falling and being stabbed at the junction of Manchester Road at around 10.25pm on Tuesday, 18 May. The two suspects who were on a white moped (believed to be a Honda) were …

Residents of Tower Hamlets have voted to keep the role of a directly elected Mayor, in a governance referendum held on Thursday 6 May 2021. Voters backed the current system of governance at Tower Hamlets Council by 63,029 votes to 17,951 votes, with 3,444 spoiled ballots. The turnout was 41.79%. The result means that local elections in 2022 will take …

Police were called to reports of a stabbing on East India Dock Road, near the junction with Hale Street today. Police officers and London Ambulance Service crew found a man, who they believe to be 17, ‘suffering a stab injury’. The teenager was taken to hospital, where his condition is not thought to be life-threatening. The police have authorised a …