Lorna Russell holds Highgate for Greens in Camden by-election

A delighted Russell won comfortably with 1,513 votes – more than double the ballot papers cast for Labour’s Patricia Leman, who took second place with 740 votes.

Russell crossed the floor from Labour to the Greens in 2021, when she was a councillor for Fortune Green and was also serving as deputy mayor. She stood in Highgate ward as a Green in the May 2022 council elections but was unsuccessful and also contested by-election in South Hampstead in June this year.

But it was all smiles at the by-election as the Greens kept the Highgate seat of former councillor Sian Berry, and party number crunchers said their share of the vote was boosted.

Islington Green councillor Benali Hamdache hugs newly elected Highgate Green councillor Lorna Russell. Photo: Julia Gregory

Russell will take the seat vacated by Berry, who stood down after nine years to concentrate on her parliamentary campaign in Brighton. She will join Labour’s Camron Aref-Adib and Anna Wright in representing the ward.

Highgate is the most northerly ward in Camden and is part of Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer’s Holborn and St Pancras parliamentary constituency.

Lorna Russell has just been elected as the Green ward councillor for Highgate. Photo: Julia Gregory

The turnout at Thursday’s (November 30) by-election was just 33 per cent.

Russell is the only Green councillor in the Labour-controlled council.

She said: “I now have a mandate to challenge the council.

“I felt quite constrained as a Labour councillor and there were things I could not agree with on a local level like the O2 development and changing bin collections. I have the ability to question them now.”

Russell said she wants to ensure residents have a voice.

She added: “People are concerned about the cost of living and housing and on a local level they just felt that Camden was not listening.”

She said people are concerned about poor responses to housing repairs, problems with heating systems on their estates and developments that could change Highgate.

Labour candidate and retired teacher Leman, who is known as Tricia, had pledged to put people first.

Tricia Leman, Labour's candidate in the Highgate by-election. Photo: Labour party

She campaigned for more affordable homes and said she would push for more money to keep them in good repair.

Her Labour colleague, deputy council leader Adam Harrison, said: “Tricia was a great candidate and she would have made a great contribution in our community.”

He said Labour has not held all three seats in the ward for the last 20 years.

Local Conservatives candidate Wakjira Feyesa won 240 votes.

Wakjira Feyesa, Local Conservatives candidate for Highgate. Photo: Julia Gregory

He said: “People are worried about council tax, overdevelopment and policing.”

Feyesa had suggested police hold regular surgeries in coffee shops to talk to residents.

Liberal Democrat candidate Farrell Monk polled 84 votes.

Farrell Monk, Liberal Democrat candidate for Highgate. Photo: Julia Gregory

He said: “One of the things that came up most on the doorstep was traffic enforcement.”

He said some residents offered the Liberal Democrats support in the future but planned to vote Green "to make sure Labour did not get in”.

Conservative agent Don Williams said: “Labour have been haemorrhaging votes in every by-election in Camden since 2022.”

Liberal Democrat Linda Chung won in the Hampstead Town by-election in July 2022.

Labour’s Tommy Gale won the South Hampstead by-election in June 2023.

The full results were:

Wakjira Feyesa, Local Conservatives, 240; Patricia Leman, Labour, 740; Farrell Monk, Liberal Democrats, 84; Lorna Russell, Green, 1,513.