High Court throws out Lutfur Rahman’s legal challenge to government

The Evening Standard reports of Tower Hamlets and its highly controversial Mayor, Lutfur Rahman:

A High Court judge has thrown out a second legal challenge to the government’s moves to send a takeover squad in to run Tower Hamlets council.

In a fresh blow to the borough’s controversial Mayor, Lutfur Rahman, a judge blocked a judicial review against the unusual step ordered by cabinet minister Eric Pickles.

Tower Hamlets council launched the review when the government appointed external inspectors to report on Tower Hamlets amid allegations of “mismanagement of public money”.

At an earlier High Court hearing in August a judge branded the application “hopeless” – but Tower Hamlets pressed ahead anyway.

It’s no surprise that pressing ahead with a “hopeless” challenge resulted in a second legal defeat – and it also resulted in more legal bills being run up that in the end the public have to pay.