Brondesbury Park Councillor Kieron Gill has resigned

 

Cllr Kieron Gill (Labour - Brondesbury Park)

Reliable sources confirmed tonight that Cllr Kieron Gill who represented Brondesbury Park  ward for Labour has resigned. As yet no reason has been given for the resignation.

Cllr Gill was one of the new cohort of councillors elected in May 2018. Labour made a clean sweep of the ward that previously had Conservative representation.

Cllr Gill made a number of interventions beginning in 2018 moving a motion in Council condemning the deaths of 130 unarmed Gazans at the hands of the Israeli forces. LINK

In 2019 Gill seconded the motion declaring a Climate Emergency in Brent which continues to make an impact on council policy. LINK

In 2020 Cllr Gill hit the headlines when he resigned from the Labour Group's Task Force on Democracy  and went public with his criticism of the Chair of the Task Force, Cllr Thomas Stephens (now in the Cabinet) for producing a 'soft report' and urging his fellow councillors to reject the 'weak offer.' LINK

Finally in February of this year Cllr Gill abstained on the Labour budget. LINK

It appears that another councillor with a streak of independence has gone.

It is likely that the by-election caused by the resignation will be held on May 6th which is the polling day for the GLA and Mayoral election.

The contest is likely to be close as it was in Barnhill and Alperton. 

 

Barnhill Election Petition goes to the High Court on February 19th

More than a year after the Barnhill ward by-election a court hearing in relation to the Election Petition submitted by Stefan Voloseniuc and Kanta Mistry (Conservative candidates) is listed to take place on the morning of February 19th at a time not before 10.30am at the Royal Courts of Justice, in the Strand,

Carolyn Downs, Brent Returning Officer, has applied to the Court to request that the Election Petition be determined by special case and to effectively approve the outcome of the by-election.  The application will be considered by two High Court judges in the Queens Bench Division of the High Court on the morning of February 19th.

A recount of the by-election took place at the Royal Courts of Justice on July 16th 2020 and the provisional result of that recount cannot at present be divulged.

The Defendants in the case are Carolyn Downs (Returning Officer) and Mansoor Akram and Gaynor Lloyd the Labour candidates who were declared the winners of the by-election and are currently sitting as councillors for Barnhill ward, alongside Shafique Choudhary. 

The by-election was caused by the resignations of  Labour councillors Michael Pavey (former Deputy Leader) and Sarah Marquis (former Chair of the Planning Committee).

 BACKGROUND

 

Declaration of interest I was one of the Green Party candidates in the by-election (the other was Peter Murry). We are not parties to the petition.