Labour got a shock tonight as it lost a ‘safe’ seat on Tower Hamlets Council in a by-election overwhelmingly won by Aspire party activist Kabir Ahmed.
He stormed home taking Bethnal Green’s Weavers ward with 1,204 votes — beating Labour’s dejected candidate Nasrin Khanam by a clear 462 margin.
Rejected… Labour’s Nasrin Akter Khanam loses by-election by clear margin
– Credit: Mike Brooke
Ahmed, a staunch ally of ex-mayor Lutfur Rahman who had been banned from office for five years in 2015, immediately threw down the gauntlet in his acceptance speech that “Aspire is back”.
Rahman would now challenge John Biggs when voters go to the polls next May to elect its mayor for another four years which Labour has held since 2015.
Kabir Ahmed watches his votes pile up behind the screen
– Credit: Mike Brooke
Critics see the return of Aspire, which was the biggest opposition party at the town hall before being wiped out at the 2018 local council elections, as a protest vote against Labour’s controversial “Liveable Streets” traffic barrier schemes around Columbia Road and Arnold Circus.
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Both Aspire and Tory Elliott Weaver, who polled 360 behind Labour’s 742, say they picked up support on the doorstep from households claiming the barriers throw traffic onto neighbouring streets instead and were dividing the community.
Jubilant… Kabir Ahmed is Tower Hamlets Council’s newest member for Weavers ward
– Credit: Mike Brooke
The new Aspire councillor pledged to end the schemes if his party ousted Labour at next year’s council elections with Lutfur Rahman running for mayor again now his Election Court ban has ended.
The by-election result was declared by the council’s returning officer Will Tuckley around midnight.
Nasrin Khanam… watching votes being counted that lost her the by-election
– Credit: Mike Brooke
The dejected Labour candidate left immediately, having already refused an interviewed with the East London Advertiser. Mayor John Biggs also hurried away.
The by-election followed the sudden death of Labour’s John Pierce on June 10 who had been found dead in his flat in Bethnal Green, nine days after his 40th birthday.
Six people put their hat in the ring. Labour, which controlled the council with 42 of its 45 seats, was set to win Weavers which Cllr Pierce had held since 2012. The people decided otherwise.
The Weavers count is under way… watched by Elliott Weaver the Tory candidate
– Credit: Mike Brooke
How the people of Weavers ward voted:
Kabir Ahmed (Aspire) 1,204
Kasrin Khanan (Labour) 742
Elliott Weaver (Conservative) 360
Sylvia Bienfait (Green) 205
Emanuel Andjelic (Lib Dem) 50
Hugo Pierre (TU Socialist) 30
The turn-out was almost 28 per cent.
Weavers by-election: 2,607 votes from three polling stations with 27.9 turn-out
– Credit: LBTH
https://www.eastlondonadvertiser.co.uk/news/local-council/tower-hamlets-by-election-result-8233536
