'Homes for votes deal in council election fix': Petition claims polling for mayor in London's Tower Hamlets was fraudulent. Daily Mail

Mayor Lutfur Rahman

  Islamic voters allegedly told to be 'good Muslims' by electing Lutfur Rahman

  His supporters handed out lollipops to the children of voters, it is claimed

  Mr Rahman, serving a second term as borough mayor, won by 3,000 votes

Voters were promised council houses if they re-elected their mayor, a court heard yesterday.

Islamic sections of the electorate were told they should be ‘good Muslims’ by voting for Mayor Lutfur Rahman, it was said.

In a further bid to win votes, supporters of Mr Rahman allegedly handed out lollipops to the children of voters in Tower Hamlets, East London.

A petition brought before the High Court claims the re-election of the mayor in May was fraudulent ‘in a variety of forms’.

It alleges that council officers were bullied into ‘securing a certain number of votes’ and were threatened with the sack if they refused.

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His memoirs, serialised in the Mail, convulsed Westminster. Now Gordon Brown's spin doctor gives his withering verdict on the two Eds: Paranoid, confused, and their policies are a great, steaming pile of fudge Daily Mail

Ed Miliband and Ed Balls.

  Damian McBride claims Miliband and Balls run 'dysfunctional' Labour Party

  They're confused, lacking clear policies and a target audience, he claims 

  Says Labour could win by treating election like a Gordon Brown-era Budget 

Just nine months before the next General Election, the Labour Party has no positive messages to communicate to anyone about why they should vote for them. It has no policies which will persuade them, and no clear idea who its target audience is. And it’s being run in a totally dysfunctional way.

So how do the two Eds - Miliband and Balls - do it? How do they overcome historical precedent, a hostile media, a sceptical public and a nervous Party, and return Labour to power in 2015?

To my mind, it’s simple: the two Eds have to stop thinking of next year in terms of an election, and start thinking of it like one of those Gordon Brown Budgets they used to work on together.

I cannot recall one Labour policy announcement over the past year that performs those feats. Ed Miliband’s measures - rent controls or an energy price freeze - are usually populist enough but rarely stand up to scrutiny. Ed Balls’ announcements (such as his national infrastructure commission) usually pass the FT test but go entirely unnoticed in the pub.

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Parking cowboys hit cancer victims: Now scandal of 'disgraceful' fines spreads to NHS hospitals Daily Mail

A legitimate Penalty Charge Notice: Rogue parking firms hand out cynically similar 'Parking Charge Notices' which do not have the same standing as official fines, but are followed up with letters threatening court action

  Rogue wardens have allegedly been told to focus efforts on cancer wards 

  Whistleblower claims he was told to 'give tickets regardless of any illness'

  Politicians and campaigners call for crackdown on rogue parking firms

Cancer patients undergoing life-saving chemotherapy are being targeted by ‘cowboy’ parking squads at NHS hospitals, it was claimed last night.

Rogue wardens working on hospital grounds have allegedly been ordered to focus on cancer wards because patients are likely to be distracted – and therefore late returning to their cars.

Hospitals were last night accused of encouraging the ‘disgraceful’ tactic, with some trusts even taking a cut of up to 10 per cent of the parking firms’ huge profits.

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