RAHMAN: “I will stand up for the whole community and for the values of the Labour Party”

Emdad Rahman: As a prospective Tower Hamlets Labour Party Mayoral candidate, councillor Lutfur Rahman has announced his pledge to improve education, create better housing, make the East End a safer community, and enhance social cohesion.

In a specially arranged press conference, councillor Rahman, a senior partner in a London wide law firm, highlighted that one of his outstanding achievements as leader has been during the recent local and general elections.

He said; “under my leadership, the Tower Hamlets Labour party returned two Labour MPs and 41 councillors –increasing the party’s majority by 11, and almost wiping out the Respect party in the borough.”

Councillor Rahman has also been highly commended for his achievements during his time as Leader of Tower Hamlets Council. Tower Hamlets achieved 4-star council rating under his leadership.

The Spitalfields and Banglatown member has overseen the £20million Buy-Back initiative to help overcrowded families, the dealer-a-day drug strategy that secured hundreds of arrests, allocated more than £30million to create 4,000 new jobs for local residents, securing funding to renovate and protect the future of Poplar Baths, and working to keep Bancroft Library in public hands.

Apart from this Mr Rahman pointed towards the investment of £300million in renovation or rebuilding of schools across the borough, including St Paul’s Way School and freezing council tax for the year 2009-2010.

Councillor Rahman said: “If I am selected to be Labour’s candidate for Mayor I will stand up for the whole community and for the values of the Labour Party. But most of all, I will fight tooth and nail to protect and enhance the legacy of the last 13 years of Labour government. These are tough times, we know there will be cuts, but we also know that the Coalition Government is driven more by reckless ideology than economic necessity.”

Tower Hamlets Labour Party members will go to the ballot box tomorrow and cast their vote and the candidate from the shortlist who receives the majority members’ votes will become Labour’s nominated candidate to stand in the historic race to become the new Executive Mayor of Tower Hamlets.