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Police have launched a probe into allegations of electoral fraud in Tower Hamlets just weeks before a key election.

Scotland Yard said detectives have been called in amid claims of “bogus workers” canvassing residents in the run-up to the mayoral ballot in May.

It is alleged that people believed to be supporters of Independent mayor Lutfur Rahman posed as housing staff before presenting a list of his achievements to residents.

Despite apparently claiming they were from Tower Hamlets Homes — an arm’s length social housing organisation responsible for thousands of council properties — it is alleged by a resident that they then gave him campaign literature supporting Mr Rahman.

The claims were made by blogger and resident Mark Baynes and relate to an alleged incident in November. He said: “Three very smartly dressed ladies knocked on my door and said, ‘Hello, we are from Tower Hamlets Homes and we are wondering how the mayor can help you’.”

Mr Baynes said he was then presented with a leaflet supporting Mr Rahman. “I have seen them since in the area. They seem to be working through an electoral roll list — as any canvasser would,” he claimed.

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Labour’s Mayoral candidate John Biggs said: “If people are impersonating housing officers that is a scandal. This is a murky issue and we need to get to the bottom of it.”

An internal investigation by Tower Hamlets Homes found that the canvassers did not represent the organisation.

Tower Hamlets was plagued by allegations of electoral fraud in 2010, when Mr Rahman beat Labour to become the borough’s first directly-elected mayor. After a police investigation which concluded that the claims were unfounded no further action was taken.

Tower Hamlets Homes said none of its staff had acted inappropriately, and it would be happy to cooperate with any further investigations. Nobody from the mayor’s office or the council was available to comment.

The website Eastlondonlines, reporting a Tower Hamlets council meeting in November, quoted Shahed Ali, the Independent councillor for Whitechapel, as saying of the allegations that people should not believe what they read. He also reportedly said that “sensible members of the public” would have reported their concerns directly to the mayor or one of his executives, and that they had received no such complaints.

A Met police spokesman said: “Police in Tower Hamlets have received allegations of electoral fraud relating to the campaign of a local mayoral candidate.

“A formal record has been made of all the complaints. Enquires are ongoing and no arrests have been made.”