Biography
Luthfur Rahman OBE was born in October 1976 into a Bengali Muslim family from Shathal, in Patli, Jagannathpur, Sunamganj. His father Surabur Rahman migrated to Longsight, Manchester, in 1968, serving as president of the Greater Manchester Awami League and a chairman of Shahjalal Mosque. Luthfur joined his father in Manchester as a child in 1980, was educated at Burnage High School, and spent around twenty-two years running restaurants and takeaways. In May 2008, he became the first person of Bangladeshi or Bengali origin to be elected to Manchester City Council, representing Longsight ward, the ward his father's generation had helped settle from the 1960s. He served as deputy leader of the council from 2021 to 2024 and received an OBE in 2020. He should not be confused with Lutfur Rahman, the elected mayor of Tower Hamlets, a different person from Balaganj, Sylhet.