Elections, Tower Hamlets Style

Respect narrowly held on to their seat in Shadwell Ward in yesterday’s by-election, thwarting former Labour Council leader Michael Keith’s attempt to get back on to the Council. Despite having a very personable candidate in Rosie Clarke, the LibDems trailed a poor fourth, which should cause some soul-searching about why the party is doing so badly in large parts of East London.

Of course, politics in Tower Hamlets is unlike that of virtually any other part of the capital, not least because of the huge numbers of first and second generation Bengali (Bangladeshi) voters and a campaigning style that is more redolent of South Asia than sedate Britain. I spent some time handing out leaflets in the street not far from one of the polling stations yesterday afternoon, and at various times there were between 50 and 100 people — almost all from the ethnic minority communities — lined up urging people to support their candidate, in a mixture of Bengali (Sylheti in most cases) and English. As Rosie was alphabetically top of the ballot paper, I couldn’t help smiling at the chant of one of our local supporters: ‘Number One! On the top! Easy, easy!’ There was quite a large police presence, to ensure that voters were not over-harrassed as they ran the gauntlet of this throng to get into the polling station, and to deter any factional disputes flaring up, though not surprisingly one fiery Respect activist succeeded in getting herself arrested.