2026 Tower Hamlets London Borough Council election

The 2026 Tower Hamlets London Borough Council election will take place on 7 May 2026, as part of the 2026 United Kingdom local elections. All 45 members of Tower Hamlets London Borough Council will be elected, along with the mayor of Tower Hamlets. The election will take place alongside the local elections in the other London boroughs.^[2][3]

The thirty-two London boroughs were established in 1965 by the London Government Act 1963. They are the principal authorities in Greater London and have responsibilities including education, housing, planning, highways, social services, libraries, recreation, waste, environmental health and revenue collection. Some powers are shared with the Greater London Authority, which also manages passenger transport, police, and fire.^[4]

Since its formation, Tower Hamlets had generally been under Labour control. The SDP–Liberal Alliance won a majority of seats in the 1986 election, and the newly formed Liberal Democrats won a majority in the 1990 election. There was also a period of no overall control from 2014 to 2018. From 1990 to 2006, all councillors elected to the council were Labour or Liberal Democrats. In the 2006 election, Labour maintained its majority by winning 26 seats, but the new Respect Party won twelve seats, with the Conservatives on seven and the Liberal Democrats on six.^[5] In the 2010 election Respect lost all but one of its seats, with Labour winning 41, the Conservatives winning eight and the Liberal Democrats winning one. Respect was the only party to advocate a change in executive arrangements at the council by the introduction of a directly elected mayor of Tower Hamlets. A mayoral petition was successfully arranged by the Respect activist Abjol Miah, which was successful.^[6]

The Labour councillor Lutfur Rahman, who had been leader of the council from 2008 until he was replaced in 2010 after a Channel 4 documentary linked him to the Islamic Forum of Europe, was selected as his party's candidate for the mayoralty.^[7] He was removed as the candidate by the National Executive Committee of the Labour Party after "very serious allegations" about the selection.^[8] He subsequently ran as an independent candidate with support from Respect.^[9][10] Rahman was elected in the October 2010 election with more than half of the vote in the first round.^[11] Rahman established a new political party called Tower Hamlets First in 2013. He ran for re-election as the Tower Hamlets First candidate in 2014, being re-elected in the second round against the Labour candidate John Biggs.^[12] In the concurrent council election, Tower Hamlets First won 18 seats, with Labour on 22 and the Conservatives on 5, resulting in no overall control of the council.^[13]

In 2015, Rahman was removed from office and his election was declared void after he was found guilty of electoral fraud. He was barred from seeking re-election for five years.^[14][15] Tower Hamlets First was de-registered as a political party by the Electoral Commission shortly after.^[16] In the 2015 re-run of the mayoral election, Rahman endorsed the independent candidate Rabina Khan.^[17] Khan had been elected as a Labour councillor in 2010 but had been suspended for supporting Rahman's initial 2010 election, and had been re-elected in the 2014 council election as a Tower Hamlets First councillor.^[18][19] Biggs won the election.^[20] The former Tower Hamlets First councillors formed the Tower Hamlets Independent Group. Khan formed the breakaway group the People's Alliance of Tower Hamlets (PATH) with some other Tower Hamlets Independent Group councillors, which was formally registered in 2018.^[21] The remaining Tower Hamlets Independent Group councillors formed the new party Aspire.^[22]

In the 2018 mayoral election, Khan stood as the PATH candidate, coming second, and Ohid Ahmed stood for Aspire. Ahmed had been endorsed by Rahman.^[23] Biggs was successfully re-elected for the Labour Party with 48.4% of the vote in the first round and 72.7% of the vote after second preferences were taken into account.^[24] In the concurrent council election, Labour won 42 seats with 46.1% of the vote, while the Conservatives won two seats with 9.9% of the vote across the borough. Khan was elected as a councillor for PATH, with her party winning 11.3% of the vote across the borough. Aspire lost all their representation, winning no seats with 15.4% of the vote. The Liberal Democrats received 8.6% of the vote and the Green Party received 7.9% of the vote, but neither won any seats.^[25]

In the 2022 elections, Aspire regained control of the council from Labour, winning 24 seats, and also won the mayoralty with Lutfur Rahman returning as mayor. Reduced to 19 seats, this is the lowest ever number of seats Labour have ever held in the history of Tower Hamlets; the Conservatives retained one seat, while the Green Party gained one seat.

Tower Hamlets, like other London borough councils, elects all of its councillors at once every four years. The previous election took place in 2022. The election took place by multi-member first-past-the-post voting, with each ward being represented by two or three councillors. Electors had as many votes as there are councillors to be elected in their ward, with the top two or three being elected.

All registered electors (British, Irish, Commonwealth and European Union citizens) living in London aged 18 or over were entitled to vote in the election. People who live at two addresses in different councils, such as university students with different term-time and holiday addresses, were entitled to be registered for and vote in elections in both local authorities.^[26]

Changes 2022–2026:

• November 2023: Ayas Miah (Labour) leaves party to sit as an independent^[27]
• 2024: Sabina Khan (Labour) joins Aspire^[28]
• June 2024: Sabina Akhtar (Labour) leaves party to sit as an independent^[29]
• August 2024: Rachel Blake (Labour) resigns – by-election held September 2024^[30]
• September 2024: Abdi Mohamed (Labour) wins by-election;^[31] Kabir Hussain (Aspire) leaves party to sit as an independent^[32]
• October 2024: Saif Uddin Khaled (Aspire) and Ohid Ahmed (Aspire) leave party to sit as independents^[33]
• November 2024: Jahed Choudhury (Aspire) leaves party to sit as an independent; Sabina Akhtar (independent) joins Aspire^[34]

Asterisks denote incumbent councillors seeking re-election. Unless otherwise noted, the councillors seeking re-election were elected in 2022.

• Rebaka Sultana was a sitting councillor for Bethnal Green East ward.

• Asma Begum was a sitting councillor for Bow West ward.

• Shubo Hussain was a sitting councillor for Bromley South ward.

• Mufeedah Bustin and Peter Golds were sitting councillors for Island Gardens ward.