In the past this blog has published a number of stories concerning the London Borough of Redbridge and the influence of Islamic politics in the area. An influx of Muslims has brought with it a much increased level of support for the Labour Party which allegedly pandered to Islamic interests and abused the Islamic bloc and postal vote to gain power. Redbridge is where the Labour party that now rules Redbridge after years of it being, when it contained many Jews and Hindus a Tory/Lib Dem borough, is now almost entirely beholden to the Islamic community for its support.

As with other areas that have fallen to a Labour Party/Islamic alliance, Redbridge, which was once a relatively peaceful place where I used to go drinking in the General Havelock pub and where people once aspired to live in, the area has declined. Street violence is now all too common and I’ve heard complaints that some Jewish women feel unsafe on the streets now when they didn’t before Labour took control.

Redbridge is also suffering from a problem with electoral fraud, not just postal vote fraud or Muslim women being coerced to vote for the Labour Party by male relatives and community leaders, but also electoral fraud by those who pretend to live in the borough in order to stand for election as local councillor.

It is this latter issue that today’s story is all about and it is a story of shameless opportunism and dishonesty by a man who managed to get himself illegally elected to Redbridge Borough council. Thankfully in this case the courts did their job and gaoled the offender for 17 months for claiming to live in Redbridge when in reality he lived the neighbouring borough of Barking and Dagenham.

Here’s part of the report into this case by the Ilford Recorder. As is usual policy for this blog the original text is in italics whereas this blogger’s comments are in plain text.

The Ilford Recorder said:

A former councillor has been jailed and ordered to pay more than £28,000 back to Redbridge Council after committing electoral fraud.

Chaudhary Mohammed Iqbal, who was a Labour councillor for Loxford for more than two years, admitted in October that he gave a false address when applying to be councillor and later lied to the police.

He was jailed on Monday, January 4 for 68 weeks (17 months) and must pay back £18,368 he received in expenses and £10,000 towards the cost of the by-election to replace him.

Iqbal, who lived in Cecil Avenue, Barking, at the time, pretended to live at a rental property in Ilford in order to run as a Redbridge councillor in the 2018 local elections.

This is blatant electoral fraud. You need to live in the area where you are standing in order to be eligible to stand for election whether that be as a local councillor as in this case, or as an MP. I find it astonishing that he was able to get away with this for two years although not at all surprised to find that he was a Labour member although more on that later.

Iqbal, when questioned by the police tried to brazen the matter out and claimed that he had only visited the property in Cecil Avenue and his main residence was a flat in Ilford. He kept up the denials until he resigned from the council in October, citing ‘health concerns’ following a heart attack in January 2019.

Apparently, Iqbal managed to get a tenant of his in Ilford to lie for him and say that he lived there but when police visited they found a set up of a bed in the spare room that to them looked staged. The tenant who allegedly gave the false statement to assist Iqbal is alleged to have fled the UK and a European Arrest Warrant has been issued for her.

The Judge’s comments on this case look, shall we say, interesting and paint a picture of Iqbal as a massive and dishonest opportunist. He flitted from party to party to see who would give him the best chance of becoming a councillor. Iqbal and defence counsel claimed that Iqbal only wanted to be a councillor in order to ‘help’ people. However cynics such as myself wonder if a person as dishonest and as shifty as Iqbal were more intent on helping either themselves or their mates or even a particular religious and political ideology, rather than the general population of the ward in which he stood in and represented illegally?

The Ilford Recorder reported Judge Cahill, sitting at Southwark Crown Court as saying:

Her Honour Judge Sally Cahill QC told Iqbal: “The electorate of Redbridge has been deceived substantially and has suffered substantially.

“You decided you wanted to become a local councillor, despite the fact that you were not qualified to do so.

“You joined Labour in 2007 to achieve that object and, when you failed in your attempts with them, you became a Conservative. That did not succeed so you went back to the Labour party.

“You gave various addresses, including one non-residential, because you wanted to appear to live in the area for which you wanted to be a councillor.

“You went so far as to instruct your tenants that they should leave the water bill in your name and that they should not register to vote at that property.

“In September 2019, you were interviewed under caution. You answered questions and gave a detailed account supporting your answer. It was all lies.

“During (the police) investigation, you decided to carry on as a councillor. You went to meetings, you claimed expenses and met with constituents. You did not resign until October 1, 2020.

“You have expressed (remorse) in words but your conduct up until October 1 expresses quite the opposite.

“You quite deliberately involved yourself and your tenant in telling lies to cover your tracks and, had you been successful, you would no doubt have continued to act as a councillor.”

These words are stinging ones aimed at Iqbal from Judge Cahill and they are words that are well and truly deserved, as is the gaol sentence. This is not merely an error in filling out paperwork for election, this is a carefully planned fraud which will damage the confidence of the general public in the area in the electoral system. Judge Cahill’s comments about him and how he went from Labour to Conservative and back to Labour again show Iqbal to be someone of minimal political conviction and a person who only chose a political party on the grounds of which one would give him the best chance of being elected. I don’t believe that the local Labour Party come out of this case smelling of roses either. There are big questions that the party needs to answer about how and why he was selected for this seat and what checking, if any, was done to ensure that he was eligible for election in that particular ward and in that particular borough?

I’ll conclude this piece by asking a couple of questions of readers. Whilst it is right and proper that Iqbal has been caught and gaoled, how many other Iqbal’s are there sitting on our local councils when they have no legal right to be there? How many of the councillors representing the Big Three parties are governing by way of councillors who sit illegally? Although in this case it is a Muslim who has been shown to be dishonest, there may be dozens if not hundreds of other falsely sitting councillors out there, some Muslim some not, who are deciding policy for the residents of areas that they do not have the legal right to represent. There needs to be some sort of national audit of councillors to root out those who are not genuinely concerned with local politics and doing the best for local people and who instead may be acting as councillors purely in order to enrich themselves with power, money and influence.