Lambeth (Parliament Politics Magazine) – Cllr Infran Mohammed will not join Lambeth’s investigating Committee after accusations of sexual offences led to heated debate and scrapped plans.
After being arrested and charged in July of this year with sexual assault, exposure, and engaging in coercive or controlling behavior, Councillor Irfan Mohammed lost his position as Deputy Cabinet Member and his seat on all council committees.
He has rejected claims of sending a woman videos in which he is seen masturbating to her and sexually assaulting her on four occasions. The trial has been set for 29 June 2026, with an estimated length of seven days. Cllr Mohammed is currently an Independent councillor, after previously being suspended from the Lambeth Labour Group.
Cllr Mohammed’s position as a member of the Investigating Committee, which scrutinizes, questions, and investigates the council’s work, and holds the cabinet and officers accountable to the public, was included in a report to council on distribution of seats.)
The allocation of seats was being reviewed after Cllr Martin Abrams, a former Labour councillor, quit the party and joined the Lambeth Green Group, and because of Cllr Mohammed’s new Independent status. A Lambeth Council spokesperson said:
“By law different political groups are given proportionate representation on council committees. As the sole independent, the councillor meets the legal requirement for the allocation of a seat on a committee.
The law only disqualifies a councillor from office if they are convicted of a crime in certain circumstances, and does not give the council the power to remove an individual from office.”
During last night’s Full Council meeting, Donna Harris, Leader of Lambeth’s Lib Dems, said the proposal to offer Cllr Mohammed a seat on the committee was “deeply concerning”.
“I stand here tonight not only as a councillor but also as the national party’s Chair of Liberal Democrat Women and I must say clearly and firmly that what I’m about to raise cannot be ignored. This must be addressed on behalf of women everywhere who expect their councils to act with integrity, accountability and respect.
The proposal to offer the Independent member a seat on the Investigating Committee is deeply concerning; it sends entirely the wrong message to residents, to council staff and to every woman who expects our public institutions to be safe and fair.”
Cllr Harris added:
“I fully recognise, as we all must, that he is innocent until proven guilty, but while those proceedings are ongoing it is wholly inappropriate for him to be given a committee seat, especially while responsible for investigating the conduct of others.”
The meeting descended into chaos and a row broke out between Green and Labour councillors over how the proposal to place Cllr Mohammed on the committee came to be, with the Greens accusing Labour of making a “mockery” of the council and Labour accusing the Greens of misleading residents on the issue.
The proposal was ultimately scrapped after councillors voted against the report. A council spokesperson confirmed this to the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) on Thursday (October 16), and said:
“Following a vote of Lambeth’s Full Council [yesterday] evening the allocation of seats will now be reviewed, and so no seat was allocated to Cllr Mohammed.”
They added:
“The council takes safeguarding issues extremely seriously and took immediate action upon being notified that Cllr Mohammed had been arrested in July. He is now an Independent councillor having been suspended from the Lambeth Labour group, and removed from his role as a Deputy Cabinet Member, following criminal charges that are yet to be tried.”
Who proposed scrapping the Investigating Committee and why?
The suggestion to abolish the Investigating Committee in the London Borough of Lambeth was made chiefly by members of the Labour group on the council. This was essentially done to stop a seat being allotted to a councillor under investigation for serious sexual offences, which had caused considerable public debate and objection.
Council members, as well as individuals in the public, indicated that it was not in the public interest on both points to allow a councillor who was under investigation for such allegations to serve on the proposed committee, nor was it in the best interests of the integrity of the council and public confidence in the democratic process.
After a lengthy discussion at the council meeting on December 15, 2025, the resolution was to cancel the proposed committee rather than risk the embarrassment of allowing a councillor to be on the committee while being the subject of a criminal investigation.
