



Claims that voters in Tower Hamlets were spat on, free lunches were used to win over local residents and that canvassers were paid in the runup to May’s mayoral election have been published in advance of an election court hearing next month.

Lutfur Rahman, Britain’s first directly elected Muslim mayor, will face the claims brought by local residents who want to rerun the election on the grounds that he won through electoral fraud. He has issued a statement rejecting the claims as unsubstantiated, cynical, politically motivated attacks.

The case could have repercussions for May’s general election in the east end of London. A number of Labour MPs expect to face challenges from independent candidates associated with Rahman.

Tower Hamlets has been branded a “rotten borough” over claims of corruption and religious extremism.

Eric Pickles, the communities secretary, took direct control of the council last year [see footnote].

A report by PricewaterhouseCoopers found public buildings had been sold to allies of the mayor and thousands of pounds had been given as grants to ineligible bodies.

The election court hearing will take place on 2 February. Election commissioner Richard Mawrey QC has moved the hearing from Tower Hamlets town hall to the Royal Courts of Justice in central London. He said the town hall cannot be regarded as a “neutral venue”. The petition has been brought by four residents of Tower Hamlets; Andy Erlam, Debbie Simone, Azmal Hussein and Angela Moffat, against Rahman and the returning officer John Williams.

In the new claims, which were released on Tuesday, Rahman’s associates are accused of using a £954,000 “slush fund” to pay lunch clubs directed particularly at the Bangladeshi community in key wards. Three witnesses claim that people admitted being paid by a close associate of Rahman to canvass voters, the documents say. According to court papers, intimidation was used by supporters of Rahman outside nine polling stations including a claim that a canvasser spat in the face of a Labour supporter.

All these alleged practices are illegal under the Representation of the People Act and could lead to the election being declared void and those found guilty barred from office.

The petition also claims that spiritual influence was brought to bear on the voters, which could also be deemed corrupt under the Act.

Rahman, the papers claim, spoke at an event at last May where a local imam urged those attending “to retain truth, righteousness and practise religious belief” by voting for him. He is said to have prayed for Rahman’s victory at a wedding at the same venue a week later.

In a statement, Rahman said: “I completely reject the unsubstantiated allegations of voter intimidation outside polling stations and the use of public funds for political gain.

“The Electoral Commission and police have already investigated and dropped election complaints, and the recent PwC audit found no bias in the distribution of funding. These are not new claims, but cynical political attacks which are manifestly untrue.” Williams said: “Although the initial high court hearing in 2014 rejected the petitioners’ application that the court should not, as would normally be the case, be held within the borough, the commissioner has taken a different view.

“I respect his judgment on the matter and the court is assured of my full support and cooperation throughout the process.”

• This footnote was appended on 20 January 2015. The article said that Eric Pickles, the communities secretary, took direct control of the council last year. To clarify: Pickles took control of key functions of administration when he appointed three commissioners to oversee grant-giving, appointments, property deals and the administration of future elections in the borough. The council has asked us to point out that other functions such as education, social care provision, street cleaning, housing and homelessness services are unaffected by this move.