Nick Clegg accuses Mayor Lutfur of arrogance

British Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg has accused London’s Tower Hamlets Mayor Lutfur Rahman of “arrogance” and backed an inquiry into alleged voter intimidation in the recent local election which re-elected Rahman.

Clegg attacked the mayor in his radio show, Call Clegg, on Friday, according to a report by London Evening Standard.

Referring to allegations of voter intimidation at polling stations at Tower Hamlets, he said police should be called in if the claims were found to be true.

The UK Electoral Commission has launched an investigation into what happened after allegations were raised about heavy-handed tactics and intimidation at polling stations in the borough.

Controversial Mayor Rahman’s council is also under two more investigations for corruption and misuse of funds.

Liberal Democrats party leader Clegg said in his show that he shared the people’s anger about what is alleged to have happened.

“I want the Electoral Commission to do what they said they were going to do and look into these incredibly serious allegations of intimidation,” he was qioted by the newspaper as saying.

The police need to be called in if these allegations turn out to be true, he said.

An adviser to Rahman on Thursday warned that violence will “spill onto the streets” if the results of the election were not accepted.

Kazim Zaidi, Rahman’s political adviser at Tower Hamlets, wrote on a local blog onThursday: “If those who still seem unable to accept the result continue as they are, it will spill out onto the streets where even the cleverest machine politicians will not be able to manage it.”

Clegg branded the warning “outrageous” in his show.

“I find the whole Tower Hamlets First movement and the pronouncements of Lutfur Rahman... just the kind of arrogance of it that they can swagger about in Tower Hamlets and do what they like.”

UK is a mature democracy, he said and warned that no one should ever try to even suggest that they have a right to push people about.

“Democracy is all about people pushing politicians about, not the other way round,” he said.

Labour Party and Rahman's party are now fighting to secure a majority in the council chamber in a crucial upcoming by-election after a candidate suddenly died.

On the other hand, a spokesperson for Rahman has said Kazim Zaidi no longer worked for the mayor.

“We are aware that a former employee has written an article for a local blog giving his personal views on the elections and political landscape in Tower Hamlets.

“The council would like to clarify that Kazim Zaidi is not a current member of staff, his contract ceased at the end of March 2014,” the spokesperson said.

According to the award-winning British journalist, Andrew Gilligan, who did an exposé on Rahman in The Telegraph, the mayor is backed by several London-based Islamist leaders who are protecting convicted war criminals like Chowdhury Mueen Uddin.

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