The Respect-backed Mayor of Tower Hamlets, Lutfur Rahman, has been accused of cheating Tower Hamlets taxpayers - after using a rarely-used trick to keep his propaganda newspaper, East End Life going, and to gift an extra £300,000 to his private office - in defiance of a cross-party decision of the council in March.
Rahman was defeated by a cross-party motion against increases in his office and publicity budgets in Tower Hamlets' Budget Council meeting only five weeks ago.
But Rahman has used virements - a little-known device usually used in case of emergencies - to defy the decision of councillors, meaning taxpayers will be paying to fund even more political advisers in Rahman's private office and keeping East End Life going contrary to Government guidelines.
Cllr David Snowdon, Conservative spokesman for finance, said "Lutfur Rahman has pulled a con-trick on Tower Hamlets taxpayers. By using a little-known rule, only meant to be used if emergencies crop up in the borough, he has managed to secure the money to keep his propaganda going, in complete defiance of the clear decision of your local councillors.
"This is a plain case of Rahman cheating the taxpayer out of millions of pounds for his own purposes, money which could be spent on front-line services in the borough.
"The Government has made it quite clear that new laws will be brought in to ban Town Hall Pravdas like East End Life. If Rahman signs new contracts with money taken from reserves, he runs the risk of the decision being challenged in the courts - which could cost us even more.
"It's plain Lutfur Rahman is perfectly happy to throw millions of taxpayers' money about for his own political purposes. We will be taking this up with Government Ministers immediately."