Why has the Secretary of State, Steve Reed, falsely accused two Bangladeshi councillors in Tower Hamlets of being candidates for the Bangladesh Nationalist Party in the forthcoming Bangladesh General Election? A tactic to tap into the rise of far-right politics in the UK?
A proof of Einstein’s Relativity of Time?
In the old days of the East India Company, news from Bengal came slowly. The men in London waited months for word of their distant, glittering province. Now we have aeroplanes that cross the world in hours, and the internet that carries voices and messages in a heartbeat. Yet the news still seems to lose its way.
On Monday, 3 November 2025, Bangladesh’s centrist opposition, the Bangladesh Nationalist Party, released its slate of candidates for the general election scheduled for February 2026. Current opinion polling indicates that the BNP is well placed to secure a parliamentary majority under the country’s first-past-the-post electoral system.
The list included the constituency of Sylhet 6, covering Golapgonj and Beanibazar, with Emran Choudhury selected as the party’s candidate (not a Tower Hamlets Resident). Indeed, no individual from Tower Hamlets appeared anywhere on the published list. Speaking to contacts in Bangladesh, it was made clear that if the two councillors had ever been selected, it would have been for the Sylhet 6 seat, where their ancestral home lies. The elections in the Sylhet district are expected to be hard-fought, with little room for error and no space for parachuted candidates.
Nonetheless, almost a fortnight later, the UK Secretary of State is convening an emergency meeting to address the entirely unfounded allegation that two Bangladeshi councillors from Tower Hamlets are standing as BNP candidates. The episode raises questions. Is this an administrative exercise? A case study in bureaucratic delay? A demonstration, however inadvertent, of the sort of temporal dislocation Einstein once theorised, with time in London apparently moving at a more languid pace than in Dhaka? Or, more plausibly, does it point to a deeper and more troubling dynamic within Whitehall?
Tower Hamlets Labour Accused of Race Baiting: Tensions between the Local Labour Party and Anti-Racism Campaigners in Tower Hamlets
Last October, the police banned a far-right march in Whitechapel. In its place, anti-racism groups, local and London-wide, held a counter-demonstration. At that gathering, some claimed that Labour candidates for the coming local elections arrived and tried to fold the event into their campaign efforts. The crowd did not take kindly to it. Activists booed them away.
What followed was a long, bitter exchange on social media and on a Bangladeshi community TV channel. Anti-racism campaigners said certain Labour figures were working with right-leaning newspapers to undermine the counter-protest. Some Labour members and journalists, in turn, accused activists of links they denied and rejected. The argument grew harsher. A local youth worker, Zak Hussain, went on Channel S and alleged that some individuals were acting in step with Nigel Farage. These were claims made in the heat of conflict, and they remain contested.
Over the weekend, speaking with community activists, I told them what they already sensed: the local Labour Party in Tower Hamlets is in difficulty. Polls place it behind Aspire, the Greens, and even the Conservatives. Under pressure, candidates may reach for hard tactics. Some may try to turn race into a weapon. Now it seems that this sense of desperation has travelled beyond the borough and reached the halls of Whitehall, and the Secretary of State, Steve Reed.
A battle has been raging on social media between anti-racist activists and Labour activists of accusations of race-baiting by the Tower Hamlets Labour Party, ahead of next year’s local elections.
Keir Starmer, do as I say, not as I do?
Recently, the Prime Minister, Keir Starmer, warned that race was creeping into British politics as far-right activity grows. He pointed to the Reform Party and its leader, Nigel Farage. But there is an old saying: when you point a finger, four turn back towards you. Perhaps the Prime Minister might look first to the conduct within his own Cabinet, including that of Steve Reed and ask what example is being set there.
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