Changing the guard

Headhunters and talent scouts are needed to ensure a wider range of people are elected to local councils, writes Joe Simpson

“I wouldn’t even have thought about being a councillor without the guidance I got – it’s a big role to step into without knowing anything about it.”

Darren Thornton, a community activist who hadn’t previously contemplated standing for his council (Richmond), is typical of a cohort of new councillors elected in the May London elections who were all drawn in to local politics by a campaign to widen the pool from which London’s politicians are selected.

The ‘Be a councillor’ campaign was initially a joint initiative by Local Government Leadership (formerly Leadership Centre for Local Government) and London Councils, to bring new talent into local politics and to test the idea that people simply aren’t interested in local politics or in becoming councillors.

Small pond

When we looked at the figures on where London’s councillors were drawn from after the 2006 elections, we found just a fifth were aged under 40 (compared to 60% of Londoners), 20% were from black or minority ethnic backgrounds (compared to 29%) and 33% were women.

London’s councillors, it seemed, were mainly being selected from the small pool of people who are active in their local parties. Good as party members are, it is better to call on a wider pool of party supporters as council candidates so local government can benefit from the many talents that Londoners – in their wide diversity of race, age, gender and experience – can bring to local politics.

The idea behind the campaign was to turn political groups into talent scouts who, much like football managers and headhunters, actively go out and find people and ask them to stand for election.

A guide to recruitment was written, and leads from each of the political parties were nominated to work with selected councils.
Political groups threw themselves into the task, challenging themselves to find new ways of reaching out to a new type of councillor – local people who are already active in their communities or would like to be, but aren’t yet involved in party politics.

In Brent, a campaign inspired by US president Barack Obama’s election saw up to 40 completely new people stand as candidates. Having these representative candidates – varied in age, gender, faith and race – was, believes deputy leader Cllr Muhammed Butt, a key reason for Labour’s success in retaking the council.

“At a time when all the national indicators were against Labour, we had a slate of new candidates that people could really relate to, 21 of whom were elected and have totally changed politics in Brent,” he says.

Conservative councillors were equally imaginative. In Kensington and Chelsea, they turned to Tribal, a leading headhunter in the public and not-for-profit sector, but whose day-to-day recruiting work is focused on recruiting senior executives and non-executives – not councillors.

They alighted on Emma Wills, a mother of a two-year-old, with a City background.

“They found me at just the right time in my life, post-small baby and looking to do something socially useful.

“I was thinking about non-governmental organisation charity work, and hadn’t really considered being a councillor,” she says.

Cllr Wills was selected for a safe seat and is already a junior cabinet member.

There is no doubt that all the hard work has paid off. Early figures show that the number of black and minority ethnic councillors in London has gone up from 20% to 31%, and the number of women has risen by several percentage points.

When the figures are collated later in the year, we are confident they will also show the average age of London’s councillors is down considerably.

This campaign has shown that there are thousands of people in London – like the new councillors below – and across the country, who are just waiting to be asked to stand as councillors.

LG Leadership is now rolling this campaign out nationally: this active recruitment process has to become part of the way we do things in local politics.

Cllr Darren Thornton
Liberal Democrat, Richmond

As the former chair of my estate residents’ association and someone who does a lot of voluntary work with local children and old people, I often take up issues on behalf of friends and neighbours, and I wasn’t afraid to take the council on if need be.

It was my fighting spirit that led a local Lib Dem councillor to suggest I should stand for the council. I really liked the idea of giving a voice to the people and area where I live.

At first I thought about standing as an Independent, but eventually I realised that I identified politically with the Lib Dems so I joined the party. I was overwhelmed when I won.

And, despite finding the workload quite tricky to manage around my day job, I have enjoyed it increasingly since. I didn’t see myself with a future in politics – but having experienced life as a councillor, I can see myself standing again.

Cllr Julia Memery
Conservative, Lambeth

I have always been interested in politics, but the demands of a busy career in a FTSE 100 company, alongside studying for an MBA, didn’t leave me much free time.

After completing my studies in 2008 I found I had some time to spare, and wanted to be more active in the community. I approached the local Conservative party to see what I could do locally – and they suggested one option would be to stand as a councillor. My aunt is a councillor in the midlands and so I knew a bit about what was involved.

Now that I’ve been elected as one of four Conservatives on Lambeth council, I’m finding the work very interesting – I sit on several committees, which need a lot of reading and preparation, and I’m regularly out in my ward dealing with case work. I have no regrets – being a councillor is an incredibly valuable and rewarding experience.

Cllr Awale Olad
Labour, Camden

I became active in politics when the youth service I worked for lost most of its funding after Labour lost power in Camden in 2006. The cuts made me so angry that I started to become very vocal in the campaign to save youth services. While I was lobbying someone suggested that I could do more as a councillor, and that someone with my background would be an asset to the council.

So I joined the Labour party and put myself forward in Kentish Town where I fought a ferocious by-election. I lost, but subsequently found a good home in Holborn and Covent Garden. I am and will always be very grateful to the electorate there for allowing me the privilege of representing them and working hard for them at a local level.

I’m over the moon to be a member of a Labour council and able to implement the things we promised during the campaign. Now I see myself with a long future in politics – I’ve a lot to offer local people.