Final Election Results: Labour lose control of council

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Labour have lost control of Tower Hamlets Council in a big loss to the party’s ambition in London. Lutfur Rahman’s Aspire party won overall control to end Labour’s time in charge of the east London Council following his stunning re-election as Tower Hamlets mayor, seven years after being removed from office.

Aspire shot up from just two seats to 24 – securing a majority. Labour – which had previously controlled 40 of the 45 council seats – won just 19.

The former Majority Group Whip, Kevin Brady and Poplar and Limehouse Labour Party Chair, Chris Worral were defeated at the polls. Worral was previously accused of Islamophobia by a party member.

The Greens and Conservatives each won one seat on the council. Residents favourites, Rabina Khan, the only Liberal Democrat and Andrew Wood, the only Independent on the council both lost their seats to Aspire.

Labour saw most of its success in the May 5 elections in London, winning Westminster, Wandsworth and Barnet councils from the Conservatives. But disaster struck in Tower Hamlets where it had dominated for the last seven years.

The result comes the day after former mayor Lutfur Rahman pulled off a extraordinary political comeback to be re-elected mayor of Tower Hamlets. The Aspire candidate won decisively in the second round of voting on May 6, beating incumbent Labour mayor John Biggs.

Biggs, who had been mayor of Tower Hamlets since 2015, trailed in the first round with 27,894 votes while Rahman won 39,533 votes – just 3,000 votes from winning outright in the first round. The remaining candidates were eliminated and their second-preference votes transferred to the leading two for the second round, with Lutfur Rahman winning the mayoralty with a total of 40,804 while John Biggs received 33,487.

Full local elections results – Thursday, 5th May, 2022

Election summary for Wards

Wards	Elected candidates	Elected party or parties	Time declared
Bethnal Green East	Sirajul Islam	Labour Party
Bethnal Green East	Ahmodul Kabir	Aspire
Bethnal Green East	Rebaka Sultana	Labour Party
Bethnal Green West	Musthak Ahmed	Aspire
Bethnal Green West	Abu Talha Chowdhury	Aspire
Bethnal Green West	Miraj Amin Rahman	Aspire
Blackwall & Cubitt Town	Ahmodur Rahman Khan	Aspire
Blackwall & Cubitt Town	Abdul Malik	Aspire
Blackwall & Cubitt Town	Muhammad Bellal Uddin	Aspire
Bow East	Amina Ali	Labour Party
Bow East	Rachel Nancy Blake	Labour Party
Bow East	Marc Francis	Labour Party
Bow West	Asma Begum	Labour Party
Bow West	Nathalie Sylvia Bienfait	Green Party
Bromley North	Muhammad Saif Uddin Khaled	Aspire
Bromley North	Abdul Mannan	Aspire
Bromley South	Bodrul Islam Choudhury	Aspire
Bromley South	Shahaveer Hussain	Labour Party
Canary Wharf	Saied Ahmed	Aspire
Canary Wharf	Mohammed Maium Miah Talukdar	Aspire
Island Gardens	Mufeedah Bustin	Labour Party
Island Gardens	Peter Stacey Golds	Conservative
Lansbury	Abul Monsur Ohid Ahmed	Aspire
Lansbury	Jahed Choudhury	Aspire
Lansbury	Iqbal Hossain	Aspire
Limehouse	James Robert Venables King	Labour Party
Mile End	Leelu Ahmed	Labour Party
Mile End	Mohammad Saifur Rahman Chowdhury	Labour Party
Mile End	Sabina Khan	Labour Party
Poplar	Gulam Kibria Choudhury	Aspire
Shadwell	Ana Miah	Aspire
Shadwell	Mohammad Harun Miah	Aspire
Spitalfields & Banglatown	Suluk Ahmed	Aspire
Spitalfields & Banglatown	Kabir Hussain	Aspire
St Dunstan’s	Maisha Fahmida Begum	Labour Party
St Dunstan’s	Ayas Miah	Labour Party
St Katharine’s & Wapping	Amy Louise Lee	Labour Party
St Katharine’s & Wapping	Muhammad Abdal Ullah	Labour Party
Stepney Green	Sabina Akhtar	Labour Party
Stepney Green	Mohammed Abdul Wahid Ali	Aspire
Weavers	Kabir Ahmed	Aspire
Weavers	Asma Islam	Labour Party
Whitechapel	Md Faroque Mahfuz Ahmed	Labour Party
Whitechapel	Shafi Uddin Ahmed	Aspire
Whitechapel	Mohammed Kamrul Hussain	Aspire

Full local election result by party – Thursday, 5th May, 2022

Election results by party

Party name	Seats won	% of votes
Aspire	24	36.95%
Labour Party	19	36.53%
Green Party	1	9.00%
Conservative	1	7.57%
Liberal Democrats	0	8.92%
Independent	0	< 1%
Resurrection Young People. In Sha Allah	0	< 1%
Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition	0	< 1%
Social Democratic Party	0	< 1%
Turnout:		41.84%