Cllr Khatun & John Biggs praise Mayor Lutfur Rahman’s work – but no name check

Tower Hamlets Council has scooped a prestigious award for its work in preventing counterfeiting. The Global Anti-Counterfeiting Group (ACG) Awards are presented for outstanding achievement by individuals, companies or organisations involved in combating counterfeiting and piracy worldwide. ACG represents the interests of UK and international companies, who manufacture products from toothpaste to mobile phones, chocolate to car parts. Their membership also includes lawyers, trademark agents and brand protection specialists, creating a unique environment for anti-counterfeiting interests to flourish and collaborate.

The award winners were announced during the Trading Standards Institute (TSI) Conference held in Bournemouth at the start of the month. The 2015 ACG Department Award in anti-counterfeiting enforcement went to Tower Hamlets Council’s Trading Standards team.

John Biggs has now made a formal statement in response to the news that the Council has won the award. He said: “I extend my thanks to all our staff who contributed towards winning this Anti-Counterfeiting Group (ACG) award. The council’s trading standards team has worked incredibly hard to enable us to achieve this formal recognition.”

The awards were announced a couple of weeks after last month’s Tower Hamlets mayoral election. John Biggs was quite correct to thank the staff who won the award for the Council. However, he did not give any credit to Lutfur Rahman’s Administration who supported the team’s work. The Labour Party had often accused Mayor Lutfur Rahman of relentless self-promotion, so maybe they are trying to redress the balance.

Cllr Shiria Khatun, who had been the Deputy Leader of the Labour Group before the mayoral election and whom John Biggs appointed as his unelected Deputy Mayor and Cabinet Member for Community Safety, chose to make a comment about the award too. She said, “This award is a real achievement for a part of the council that continues to work hard to protect consumers in Tower Hamlets.” This offered relatively little extra insight into the anti-counterfeiting work which Mayor Rahman had presided over but, as a statement, it was at least hard to dispute.

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