Paul Valentine elected Mayor of Lambeth, as borough inches towards committee system

The Green Party councillor for Loughborough Junction and Herne Hill has just been elected the new Mayor of Lambeth at the first Full Council Meeting, following historic local election results that saw Labour slip from power for the first time in two decades.

Cllr Valentine thanked all present in the chamber in his opening words, and took great pain to say that as the first Green Mayor and as first citizen of the borough, he represents and will represent everyone, regardless of political affiliation; Green, Labour, Lib Dem alike.

Cllr Paul Valentine takes up the Mayoralty of the borough.

The next item on the agenda is to propose, second and vote for Streatham Wells Lib Dem Cllr Judy Best as Deputy Mayor, before going on to hear the outgoing Mayor’s report.

Former Mayor, Cllr Adrian Garden returns to warm applause in the chamber, and reports on his time in office.

Each political group present in the meeting give speeches of appreciation to the outgoing Mayor, with Green group leader Cllr Martin Abrams “wishing Adrian all the best for the future” on behalf of all the Greens.

With formalities complete, a series of motions are proposed by Cllr Simon Cordon (Lib Dems) to suspend all council business in order to put forward the expected proposal: to hold an Extraordinary Meeting of the Council on 1 June, where it will be proposed that the governance of the borough moves from a Cabinet system to a Committee structure.

Labour’s Verity McGivern objects on the grounds that the Labour group have not been given advance sight of the motion (they obviously don’t read Brixton Buzz).

So the meeting is now adjourned for Labour councillors to read the motion, (and last week’s news).

Our new Mayor is keen to wrap up business, and get to the pub to watch the Palace game. With The Eagles due to potentially win their first European trophy, there are a few Palace tops dotted about the room.

The room reassembles, and Lib Dem Cllr Cordon stands again, to explain the nature and urgency of the motion.

Labour’s response is that Cllr Cordon “shouldn’t use big words (like ‘collaborative’) that he doesn’t understand” to tuts and sighs around the room and in the public gallery.

Green leader Cllr Abrams confirms his group will support the Lib Dem motion, and that the Council must show residents that the Council will “no longer work in silos or in secret” but “collaboratively and in the open”.

Motion carried. Lambeth has taken its first step towards Committee structure governance.

Cordon stands again and tells the chamber: the voters of the borough have told us:

“the days of Town Hall knows best, and tick box consultations are over”.

– Cllr Simon Cordon, Clapham Common and Abbeville

Recently returned Labour Cllr Danny Adilypour tells the room that they ‘do not have enough information to make a decision’ but will support the call for an adjournment, and calls for negotiations.

Abrams stands, “We will not enter negotiations, the councillor has my number, Danny, Claire (Holland) give me a call and we can talk it over”.

Holland shouts “chaos” at him, amidst shouts and jeers from the minority Labour group.

Meeting adjourned until 1 June 2026, where the Council is set to take the next step towards a Committee system of governance in Lambeth.