Executive editor and news editor quit paper in storm over election smears

Trial by Jeory has the story from the very lively contest to be Mayor of Tower Hamlets:

[Expelled Labour member turned independent] Lutfur Rahman’s campaign does seem to have galvanised a section of the Tower Hamlets community and many, if not most, are certainly very angry young people who are fuelled by a fair degree of hatred.

That bitterness has been targeted in almost equal measure at the Labour NEC and the party’s official candidate, Helal Abbas … There are many in the Labour party who believe the level of vitriol is similar to that experienced by Oona King in 2005 when she was beaten by Respect and George Galloway. They believe the tactics are similar: smear the candidate at all costs.

Incredibly, as Andrew Gilligan reports here, those smears have been published in full in the London Bangla newspaper, whose well-funded print run this week has been distributed en masse around large parts of the East End …

The issue is such a disgrace that Emdad Rahman has decided to resign his unpaid post as “executive editor” in protest. He tells me he has had nothing to do with those articles and he completely disassociates himself from them … Newham Labour councillor Forhad Hussain has also resigned as London Bangla’s news editor in protest.

The Liberal Democrat candidate is John Griffiths.