–Even his previous supporters are now turning against the jujitsu mayor, amid fierce pressure from the Labour national government

Reporting and opinion by Mathew Carr*

May 6-7, 2026 — The 0.1% elite and its media outlets don’t like socialism.

Yet the people are waking up and beginning to see through their billionaire propaganda.

Lutfur Rahman of Tower Hamlets council in London is one of only a few directly elected “mayors” in the Western world who openly identifies as both a socialist and Muslim.

He faces voters today (Thursday), after nearly three decades of tech-bro nonsense that have messed with British democracy…indeed, with politics around the world.

The contests this week are set to move the political needle, potentially surprising the government and its billionaire backers. A shift has already happened in New York City.

The “local’ elections — the British midterms, if you like — include about 5,000 seats across 136 local councils and six mayoral contests (BBC, Sky News). Wales and Scotland hold parliamentary elections, too.

Socialism, better capitalism is wanted

Formerly of Labour — which runs the national government right now — Tower Hamlets’ Rahman successfully and repeatedly defeated that mainstream center-left party from the outside … by tapping Bengali-linked supporters in the London borough, one of the poorest areas of the UK.

About a third of the voters here have Bengali roots. I’m writing this Wednesday May 6 from Bow, which is east of Bethnal Green and Liverpool Street Station in the City of London.

Rahman was forced out of the Labour Party in 2010 after being removed as its candidate for the first directly elected mayoral election, following internal disputes and allegations regarding his associations, including with the Islamic Forum of Europe. Rahman still won, as an independent with 52% of the vote.

Rahman, the favorite to win this week, has been making pretend-socialist Labour pay for the decision to oust him for 16 years, I contend.

And pay, in legal and consulting fees they have. Bigtime.

Britain’s bad political culture from 20th century

Labour and the Conservatives (Tories) are Britain’s two traditional (left and right) political parties and, despite its supposed-worker links, PM Keir Starmer and his Labour colleagues are now — in 2026 — probably making even bigger mistakes in political strategy than they did in 2010.

They are still protecting corporations, bankers and billionaires, instead of the people. The falsely named Reform party is just another incarnation of elite-supporting politics.

Labour is trying to win Thursday’s local elections by dividing the community using fear and propaganda, instead of by solving the everyday challenges of ordinary folks.

On Tuesday, Starmer thought he had nothing better to do than convene a meeting on antisemitism. The signal was clear, yet fake: the British people can’t stand each other and we need to spend more taxpayer money to protect Jewish folks from their neighbors.

https://x.com/implausibleblog/status/2052034396073390267?s=46

Sheer divisive propaganda

This meeting was sheer divisive propaganda designed to make people fearful rather than bring them together in what really could be one of the most hopeful moments in world history. It was misguided rubbish.

Technology and better regulation from now can allow everyone in the world to work less, enjoy more and suffer less injustice and inequality. (The euphoric markets seem on board with this, despite the fake Iran war sparked by greedy, climate-killing Trump.)

Starmer is the one stoking Jew hatred — by supporting Trump and genocidal Israel’s Ben Netanyahu and by selling them arms, driving up global inflation to a level that has financially harmed near everyone on earth.

Starmer and the elite are doing this in 2026 because a similar strategy worked the past six years, including during the Covid pandemic and the Ukraine invasion.

In the UK, Labour (and the Tories) have been trying these divisive tricks forever, it seems to me.

Ten years ago, they deployed these sinister tactics repeatedly against ex-Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, another proper socialist who has endorsed Rahman for this week’s vote.

Taking revenge

The elite attack strategy the past two decades has been to brazenly take revenge against socialist Rahman instead of to look after the fair people of Tower Hamlets, I contend. Retaliation is the weapon.

Rahman is partly to blame, too, for the elite attacks, because he didn’t include the whole of the Tower Hamlets community in a few of his electioneering and policy decisions, it has to be said.

The people, by rejecting the elite and by apparently forgiving his imperfections … re-elected him and effectively sided with a new system of social capitalism over the traditional free-market political and economic framework that has recently and outrageously allowed one man (Donald Trump) to cause global inflation and victimize 8 billion humans.

Here are seven (correct) ways Rahman has been attacked:

*Effectively kicked out by Labour

*Petitioners took him to court.

*The High Court ruled he should leave office, in quite a strange legal manoeuvre (it also has to be said). I include a link to the judgement, below. Rahman was removed as mayor and Labour was installed.

*Auditor PWC was set against him.

*Auditor EY was set against him.

*Now, Labour are pushing him to take lower business rates revenue for Tower Hamlets in the future in return for offering JPMorgan Chase, the world’s biggest bank, corporate welfare to attract the construction of a new European headquarters in Canary Wharf. The area is London’s second financial district, yet that deal seems to be a completely outrageous trade off, given the struggles of ordinary folks and the wealth of the bank. It has a market value of $829 billion.

Greens on potentially awful JPMorgan deal:

https://youtu.be/so_q4_jPKO0?si=fKQNIjT66-3f1tSD

*Rahman and his colleagues have been fighting off for two years about £15m worth of Labour-appointed “envoys” or commissioners deployed by the national Labour government into his council operation, telling him how to do the job he was fairly (on balance?) elected to do.

I sought comment from Rahman for this story and will try again later today.

While dealing with all this, Rahman has still managed to help make Tower Hamlets into one of the most successful, peaceful and multicultural boroughs in Britain, from my perspective. Subject to further investigation and some shouty council meetings.

I get free swimming (and hot showers) at the local swimming pool in Bethnal Green. Rahman led the way on free school meals.

Our household does suffer rising, yet reasonable, council fees, rates kept lower partly because of the £100 million plus business rates from Canary Wharf each year.

Background of the Term

Still, during the next two days of 2026, favorite-to-win Rahman faces some decent obstacles.

Now, it’s not just the elite and their attack-dog media who are criticising him.

His previous supporters are, too.

Take Councillor Ohid Ahmed, who defected from Rahman’s Aspire Party in 2024 to sit in the Tower Hamlets chamber as an independent. He’s retiring at these elections and not facing a vote, he told me yesterday by phone.

Ahmed said as he shifted away from Rahman because of the mayor’s lack of accountability and transparency. He was unwilling to properly share power and listen to others, enough, he said. To be sure, he was a bit reluctant to criticise Rahman publicly, but I talked him into it.

Things have not really improved at the council since 2024, he said. “The toxic culture is there. Nobody can deny it.”

Rahman only saw the building of about 1,000 homes in the borough in the past four years vs the 4,000 he was striving for.

“If he was doing the job properly, if he was accountable, open and transparent and did everything by the book, you would not have envoys and he would have been able to do more,” Ahmed said.

Labour candidate for mayor Sirajuj Islam said last week at a hustings that the envoys were needed and not part of some witch hunt against Rahman.

The polls indicate the current mayor remains the favorite, though his Bangladeshi block has split, with a new group called the Tower Hamlet Independents fielding a bank of candidates, including for executive mayor.

See here…Aspire and Tower Hamlets Independents are under column B:

JL Partners polling

If the numbers in the chart above turn out to be right AND the Aspire vote splits in half, the Green candidate Hirra Khan Adeogun might win.

Labour is still in with a chance.

I pressed Ahmed on whether he thought the Independents might even take half of Rahman’s votes? He declined to answer, and would not even say which way he was going to vote personally, which is his right.

There are 8 other candidates vying for the mayoralty, so the winner might win with a low share.

Still, with much of the fight secretly taking place online and many people deciding only on the day, it’s difficult to know if the polls are close to being accurate as a measure of tomorrow’s voting intention.

(More to come later today; * the author’s interests include the Greens, Corbyn, Liberal Democrats and other political parties wanting better capitalism; I was even supportive of Rahman, until yesterday’s conversation with Ahmed, at least.)

NOTES

Judgement

Erlam-Ors-v-Rahman-Anor-2015-EWHC-1215-QB-23-April-2015