2026 Tower Hamlets mayoral election
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
7 May 2026
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The mayor of Tower Hamlets | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
.jpg)
The 2026 Tower Hamlets mayoral election will be held on 7 May 2026 to elect the mayor of Tower Hamlets, on the same day as the Tower Hamlets local council election and other local elections across the country.
The position of Mayor of Tower Hamlets became a role with political powers in 2010, having previously been purely ceremonial.
Lutfur Rahman was elected in the October 2010 election with more than half of the vote in the first round.[1] He was originally the Labour candidate, but was replaced in 2010 after a Channel 4 documentary linked him to the Islamic Forum of Europe.[2] 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.[3]
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.[4][5] In the 2015 mayoral by-election, Rahman endorsed the independent candidate Rabina Khan;[6] John Biggs was again the Labour candidate and won the election.[7]
In the 2018 mayoral election, Khan stood as the People's Alliance of Tower Hamlets (PATH) candidate, coming second, and Ohid Ahmed stood for Aspire. Ahmed had been endorsed by Rahman.[8] Biggs was 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.[9] In the 2022 mayoral election, Lutfur Rahman's ban on seeking election had lapsed, and he returned as mayor with 54.9% of the second-round vote.
