Campaigner threatens legal action as police drop election fraud case

An anti-corruption campaigner is considering legal action against the police decision to not to proceed with an investigation into electoral fraud under former Tower Hamlets Mayor Lutfur Rahman.

The police dropped the investigation into Mr Rahman’s 2014 re-election due to “insufficient evidence that criminal offences had been committed.”

But Andy Erlam, an anti-corruption campaigners, who led the petition that successfully overturned the 2014 election result, said he is now considering launching either a judicial review or a private prosecution.

Erlam said the police had failed in their duty to the people of Tower Hamlets: “There is a mountain of evidence of election fraud and financial fraud in Tower Hamlets.

“The election court judge [Richard Mawrey QC] referred to ‘industrial-scale election fraud’. The police must have had their eyes closed if they saw no substantial evidence.”

“Once again it’s left to campaigners and local people to do their job for them,” he said.