John Biggs (politician)


John Robert Biggs is a British Labour and Co-operative Party politician who has been Mayor of Tower Hamlets since 2015.

Early life

He was educated at Queen Elizabeth's School, Barnet and graduated from the University of Bristol in 1979.

Tower Hamlets Council and London Assembly

Biggs is a former member of the London Assembly representing the City and East constituency from 2000 until 2016. He was first elected to Tower Hamlets London Borough Council in 1988 and elected leader in 1994. He has worked as a financial analyst in the City of London, and as director of a political pressure group. He has previously studied Chemistry, Computer Science and Law.

Mayor of Tower Hamlets

2014

He was the Labour candidate for directly elected mayor of Tower Hamlets in 2014, receiving backing from Former London Mayor Ken Livingstone. Livingstone supported incumbent Lutfur Rahman in 2010, but shifted his support to Biggs after an investigation into allegations of "mismanagement and fraud" by the current mayor's team at the council. However, Livingstone also remained supportive of Rahman. Biggs came second in the election to Rahman, but the election was subsequently over-turned by an election court.

2015

On 11 June 2015 Biggs was elected mayor of Tower Hamlets after Rahman was found by the court to have broken election law and was stripped of office. Biggs beat independent Rabina Khan, who was endorsed by the disqualified Rahman. This lead to government appointed commissioners being brought in to the council - the final government direction was lifted in 2017.

2018

Biggs was re-elected at the 2018 election and at the same time Labour increased its number of councillors to 42 out of 45. As a mayor, he has campaigned for improving residents' safety, having committed to investing in additional council funded police officers and youth services, along with a post at the Royal London to work with victims and perpetrators of violence.