Jane Roberts stands down as Camden Leader

Jane Roberts has announced that she's standing down as Labour Leader of Camden in November. The Labour Group will elect their new Leader on 3rd October.

Roberts has achieved the rare double of being well thought of by both London Local Government and the Blair Government ... including being made a Dame last year. She took over as Leader from Richard Arthur in 2000, after ten years as a Cllr and two as Deputy Leader ... and has been (for a Blairite) an unusually effective critic of Government policy on housing and licensing. She'll also be retiring next year from her Haverstock seat ... a ward in which the LIb Dems won a surprise by-election win last year when Roberts' Deputy Leader resigned to work in a senior role for the BBC ('going downmarket' as they call it in Hampstead).

Speculation about her successor as Leader starts with current joint Deputy Leader Theo Blackwell (Regents Park) who has been increasingly high profile in the last few months (what did he know ? ..) However, Blackwell is clearly not wholly popular in the Group ... as he only returned as Deputy Leader in May after being ousted in 2004 by Sue Vincent (who looks spookily like Jane Roberts). The rest of the Camden Executive is an interesting mix of old and new, including three grizzled veterans first elected in the 1970s (John Mills, John Thane and Phil Turner) together with four members only elected in 2002.

Roberts' retirement will leave only two women as Borough Leaders - Ann John in Brent and the newly elected Leo Thomson in Ealing. Thomson's status as a leading high-flyer will be confirmed tomorrow, when she's been chosen to give the Local Government address to the Labour Party Conference.

Gay and lesbian marriage ties up Bromley

The saga of the proposed ban on gay marriage in Bromley got even odder last week, with a tied vote on the issue in the Council Chamber. They voted 21 : 21, with 4 abstentions.

The Tories split, with the Leader Stephen Carr calling the legalisation of gay marriage "immoral" ... and ex-Leader Michael Tickner saying "what about the rights of straight people and people who have normal sexual tendencies ?" Other leading Tories, such as Environment Executive Member George Taylor, spoke and voted to accept and implement the law. It's not clear where Bromley goes now, after this inconclusive result puts the issue back in the hands of the Executive.

Regional Tories had hoped that Carr's election as Leader two years ago would see an end to the succession of dim reactionary Leaders like Tickner and Russell Mellor. Clearly a forlorn hope. Taylor is regarded as too bright and too associated with the 21st Century to win the Leadership. The old stagers are nostalgic for the days of Dennis ("no to Fares Fair") Barkway, who at least only made Bromley hated rather than a laughing stock as well.

Defections since 2002 (A-K)

The two Newham defections join a list of Cllrs who have changed sides since the last Borough elections in 2002. The following is a list of currently known defections (although additions/corrections welcome).

This list excludes Cllrs who temporarily defected and then returned home ... more common than you'd think.

Bexley

Cllr Nickolas O'Hare (East Wickham) was the sole Lib Dem Cllr but joined the Tories in August 2005 ... only months after being the Lib Dem Parliamentary candidate in Old Bexley and Sidcup. The other two Cllrs in East Wickham are Labour, making O'Hare's seat one of the top Labour targets in this ultra-marginal Borough. O'Hare has now moved out of London to Dartford in Kent,and is reported not to be standing for re-election.

Brent

Cllr Carol Shaw (Brondesbury Park) defected from the Tories to the Lib Dems during the Brent East Parliamentary by-election campaign in September 2003. Call me cynical, but it’s interesting that people suddenly get the urge to defect during an election campaign (see Camden), when it will get them more attention. Shaw has represented the Brondesbury and Cricklewood areas since 1990, and so far held off strong Labour challenges in Ken Livingstone hardcore territory.

Bromley

Cllr Rod Reed (Kelsey and Eden Park) was elected as a Tory, but became an Independent when he stood against the sitting Tory MP in Beckenham at the 2005 election. Reed had been Chair of Beckenham Conservative Association, and was one of the voluntary party's most public putters of the boot into Iain Duncan Smith. Reed accused Beckenham MP Jacqui Lait of ineffective representation of the constituency. He lost his deposit with only 1.7% of the vote.

Camden

Cllr Jonathan Simpson (Fortune Green) moved from Lib Dem to Labour during the 2005 general election ... on the same day as Bryan Sedgemore went the other way. A surprise to outside observers from a previous Lib Dem Parliamentary and GLA candidate, who in the 2004 GLA elections said "people are tired of the arrogance of Labour in Camden". He revealed that he was a Labour Party member until 1994, and said "the Lib Dems’ stance on crime and anti-social behavior is weak and on the economy, I was very disappointed with their opposition to the minimum wage." At the point of his defection, he was the Lib Dem Chief Whip at Camden

Croydon

Cllr Patricia Knight (Fairfield) was elected as Tory but is now Lib Dem. In between times she's been reported as being an Independent and applying for membership of the Labour Group. She served previously as a Labour Cllr before being re-elected as a Tory. Perhaps she's just collecting the set.

Harrow

Cllr Gordon Williams (Pinner South) was elected as a Tory Cllr in 2002, but within six months had defected to be an Independent. He has been reported as saying that “I did not "declare" to become an Independent, or "defect" on a whim, but on a matter of local principle” ,,, "as a practising Christian I was finding it increasingly difficult to reconcile the machinations of the Harrow Conservative group with the teachings of Holy Scripture". He’s been a key swing vote in a hung Borough with a minority Labour administration, particularly in budget votes.

Cllr Adam Lent (Edgware) was elected as Labour but is now listed as an Independent.

Havering

Cllr Jeffrey Tucker (Rainham and Wennington) was elected as one of three Councillors for the Rainham Residents Association … but he’s now an Independent and the other two have left the Council in odd circumstances. Brian Clarke had a lengthy period of invisibility, culminating in his resignation from the Council shortly before he was thrown off for non-attendance. Tucker and Wayne Redgrave ware approached by the Tories who needed one more seat to have a working majority on the Council … they agreed to defect and Redgrave was given a special allowance for the newly created “job” chairing the ‘Rainham Committee’. Tucker then changed his mind and became an independent … whilst Redgrave resigned from the Council.

Hounslow

Cllr John Connelly (Hounslow Heath) was elected as a Labour Cllr, but has subsequently been suspended by the Labour Group. This follows a series of accusations and counter-accusations about Standards issues within the Labour Group, and particularly between Connelly and current Labour Leader Colin Ellar. Connelly was first elected as a Cllr over 20 years ago and was the Leader of the Council until 2002 and Mayor for the year after.

Cllr Peter Hills (Bedfont) resigned from the Lib Dems to become an Independent in August 2005. He was reported as saying “elements within the (local Lib Dem) executive had been working to undermine” him by misrepresenting details of his private life to residents in Bedfont … "I am disappointed that the many years I devoted to promoting the party both as an activist and a councillor should be swept aside by a group of people whose collective contribution to the party is to have depleted the coffers and antagonised many members”. Sounds like a fun life in the Hounslow Lib Dems.

Islington

Cllr Dave Barnes (Highbury East) … now this one is complicated. He was originally elected in the 1980s as a Labour Cllr, but then defected to the Lib Dems. He was re-elected as a Lib Dem in 2002, but then defected to be an Independent a few months later. Last year he became a member of the local –parking-obsessed Freedom Party. This month he rejoined the Labour Group.

Cllr Richard Heseltine (St Marys) was elected as a Lib Dem but defected to be Independent. This month, as part of a row about parking rights involving his second home, he said he said he was considering joining the Tories if Kenneth Clarke is picked as their leader. “I think he’s an attractive prospect”, he said.

Cllr Joan Coupland (St Marys) defected from the Lib Dems to Labour a few weeks after she ended her term as Mayor this year. She indicated that her motivation was the “dictatorial” style of the Lib Dem Council and particularly the cuts they had made to services for the elderly … “Over the last five years, I have watched as services for some of Islington’s most vulnerable residents have disappeared”

Kensington and Chelsea

Cllr Jennifer Kingsley (Cremorne) defected from the Tories to become the first ever Lib Dem Cllr in the Borough. She subsequently also became the local Lib Dem Parliamentary candidate. Kensington Tories are reported to blame this on the failure of their usual heavy-handed loyalty checking of candidates in Cremorne ... as the ward (under different boundaries as South Stanley ward) had been consistently the only Labour ward in Chelsea, largely due to the Worlds End Estate.

... boroughs from L-W to follow in a future post

Defections in Newham

A couple of bizarre defections in Newham have tripled the size of the opposition to 3 out of 60 ... and both are Cllrs in the same Royal Docks ward.

First, Cllr Sarah Ruiz defected to George Galloway's Respect party, after twelve years as a Labour Cllr ... until recently in Cabinet roles. But in May she strongly supported arch-Blairite Labour West Ham Candidate Lyn Brown in her fight against Respect in their top target seat after Galloway's. You can see her endorsement of Brown at http://www.lynbrown.org.uk

Then, Cllr Michael Law defects to the Tories to be their first Newham Cllr since 1994. On the website http://www.e-democracy.org Law and Ruiz then swapped tributes to each other .... Ruiz was "delighted" about his Tory membership and says "the opposition will need to work together".

What do they put in the water in Royal Docks ward ?

Forthcoming By-elections

There are two Borough by-elections to be held on 20th October. These may be the last by-elections of the current Council terms ... as the statutory bar on by-elections less than six months before an all-out election will come into effect on 4th November.

In Lambeth, the by-election will be to replace Tim Sargeant, who has died at the age of 44. He was the Mayor of the Borough 2003/04 - raising a record amount for charity - and by all accounts a very active and widely respected Cllr since his election in 1998.

Streatham South was a traditionally Tory seat, which Labour first won surprisingly, but then looked increasing safe for them in due to social change. Like the neighbouring wards in north Croydon, Labour has benefited here from inner London moving south. However in 2002, the Lib Dems had a very good election in Streatham and got within 70 votes of winning one of the seats in South.

The other by-election is at Canbury ward in Kingston, following the resignation of Lib Dem Cllr Tony Burlton stating grounds of ill-health. This ward is to the north of Kingston Town Centre, and has switched between Labour and Lib Dem since 1994. Labour won in 1998 in large part because of a row about the Lib Dems work with housing developers ... ending up in a big protest about riverside trees being chopped down to benefit developers' land values.

These look like two interesting tests in Lib Dem-led Boroughs ... can they win seats when the're in power, rather than just from opposition ?

Welcome to the London Borough Politics Blog

The on-line, paper and broadcast media talk a lot about London politics. But they think London is the Mayor, City Hall, and the Westminster village. Only when they want to moan about their parking tickets, do they look at the Boroughs.

The decisions that really matter for Londoners are made by their Boroughs .. and this means that Borough politics matter more in the real world than who Ken was rude to this week This blog will follow the politics of the London Boroughs - including by-elections and defections, who's up and who's down, scandal and gossip, some of their political history, and the prospects for the 2006 all-out Borough elections.

This blog was previously at http://londoners.typepad.com/london_borough_politics/.