Lambeth: Second newly elected Green councillor resigns

A second newly elected Green Party member has resigned from Lambeth Council, creating the potential for Labour to become the borough’s biggest party group

Joanna Eaves, who was elected to represent Clapham Park ward on 7 May, has stepped down due to ill health, according to a statement from Lambeth Greens.

Eaves was one of 29 Greens elected in Lambeth, as Labour lost control of the borough for the first time since 2002 and was reduced to 26 seats with the Liberal Democrats winning eight.

Her resignation follows that of Saiqa Ali, whom the Greens confirmed following her election had already been suspended by the party following her arrest in late April – along with another Lambeth Green candidate, who wasn’t subsequently elected – on suspicion of stirring up racial hatred online with alleged antisemitic material.

Eaves’s departure means the Greens are now down to 27 Lambeth councillors. By-elections will have to take place so that new councillors can be elected, giving Labour hope of overtaking the Greens as Lambeth’s biggest party. Were they to win both by-elections, its total would rise to 28 seats while that of the Greens would stay at 27.

The three-seat Clapham Park ward produced a split result on 7 May, with Labour candidates finishing in first and second places, followed by Eaves in third and another Labour candidate just 37 votes behind her in fourth place.

Ali, whose name remained on the ballot paper despite her arrest, was elected in third place in Streatham St Leonard’s ward. A Labour candidate came fourth with 1,084 votes compared with Ali’s 1,437, a difference of 353.

The by-elections will not take place until after the date scheduled for the first meeting of the new full council on 27 May, when the leader of the council is due to be elected.

Assuming all of the current and remaining 61 councillors attend and vote on party lines, that leader will be either a Green or a Labour councillor, depending on what the Lib Dem group does.

A Green will be elected leader if the eight Lib Dem councillors back the Green candidate or if they abstain, as the Greens still have the largest group of councillors despite the two recent resignations. However, if the Lib Dems choose to back the Labour candidate for leader, a Labour leader will emerge.

Labour is understood to have been talking to the Lib Dem group about some form of post-elections cross-party co-operation, though no details have yet emerged.

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