Hackney Mayor suspended by Labour after partying with disgraced former councillor on day he found out about arrest

Hackney Mayor Philip Glanville (far right) and Tom Dewey (far left), pictured at a party on 14 May 2022

Hackney Mayor Philip Glanville has been suspended from the Labour party after it emerged he partied with Tom Dewey on the day he learnt of the former councillor’s arrest for child porn offences.

The mayor is pictured with Dewey at a Eurovision party at 9.40pm on 14 May last year, according to a timestamp.

Hackney’s chief executive Mark Carroll had phoned Glanville the same day to inform him that Tom Dewey had been arrested on 29 April and faced serious charges.

Dewey resigned as a councillor after meeting Carroll on the following Monday (16 May). He had been elected in the 5 May council elections.

Earlier this month, Dewey was given a 12-month suspended sentence after admitting five charges of possessing indecent images of children.

The Labour party said it has suspended the mayor after it was told about the photograph showing the two men at a social event on 14 May.

Labour says the photograph is a clear contradiction of information previously given by Glanville to the party and to the press.

Glanville told the Morning Star: “Being with Tom Dewey at all on 14 May was clearly an error of judgement for which I wholeheartedly apologise.

“I was told of his arrest, but not the full extent of the charges, in a brief discussion with the council chief executive the same day.

“I shouldn’t have been at the event in which we were photographed but I did so as I feared to cancel the event, or not attend myself, may alert Tom to what I knew, during what I understood to be a live criminal case.”

He said he moved out of the house the following day.

Glanville has not responded today to questions but previously told the Citizen: “The first knowledge I had about the action at the property – and the arrest – was on 14 May, nine days after the local elections. This was when I was briefed by the chief executive of Hackney Council following the council having been alerted to the arrest by the National Crime Agency.

“I left the property the weekend I found out, and did not return to live at the property until he had permanently left. I did not see Tom Dewey again.”

A Labour party member said they were shocked by the picture and said “there are clearly some significant questions for the Mayor of Hackney”.

They added local members had “serious, legitimate concerns raised by this case, not least about the safeguarding of children and young people”.

Hackney Green leader Zoë Garbett said: “This picture calls into question the mayor’s entire account of events surrounding the Dewey case.”