Sue Vincent has been a Labour councillor for 24 years

IT isn’t a timid or vague endorsement — there’s not an inch left for doubt or confusion in this parting shot.

Instead, Sue Vincent, one of Labour’s longest-serving councillors, makes it abundantly clear in a letter to residents that she now thinks they should vote for the Greens.

The ruling party’s former deputy leader is making her intervention in a leaflet being circulated door to door, just four weeks from what promises to be the most unpredictable council elections in 20 years.

She said she was “surprised” to have ended up backing a different party after nearly a quarter of a century as a Labour councillor in the Holborn and Covent Garden ward.

But Cllr Vincent, who is standing down from the council, added: “I want change. Certainly change from the deaf and dictatorial current leader­ship we have, to the listening and lively discussions within the inclusive Green Party… Unlike Labour, your Green candidates are willing to discuss, to debate and to try and find the best solutions so we can all live together in peace.”

Her comments have extra spice because Labour’s leader, Councillor Richard Olszewski, has switched from his home ward of Fortune Green in the north-west of the borough to take a candidate vacancy partly left by her decision to stand down.

She accused him of doing a “chicken run” to a safer seat, adding in her letter: “Perhaps it’s not difficult to understand why when his vote plummeted from 37 per cent to just 15 per cent of his local electorate between 2018 and 2022… Does he view Holborn and Covent Garden as a safe bet for his career? That is not good enough for our ward.”

The Greens were not on the local election radar in the ward four years ago and didn’t even field any candidates there.

But the party has been surging in the polls under new leader Zack Polanski, and it has been widely predicted that the number of council seats across London will jump at the May 7 elections.

And while Labour starts the campaign with a large majority at the Town Hall, the most members of any party in the borough, and confidence that it will remain in charge once all the votes are counted, it is facing ward-by-ward battles from both the Greens and the Liberal Democrats in several areas.

The Tories believe they too will increase their contingent in the council chamber if they can prevail in areas like Primrose Hill, and independent candidates in other wards will be revealed later this week.

Flashback to Cllr Vincent campaigning against the demolition and disruption of HS2 

Camden’s sole Green councillor, Lorna Jane Russell, was profiled in The Times on Saturday under the premise that voters in the borough are waiting to send a message at the polls to illustrate their disappointment to their local MP and the prime minister, Sir Keir Starmer, with the government’s performance since returning to power.

While ill health has limited her appearances in the council chamber recently, Cllr Vincent was understood to have been disappointed to have been talked out of seconding a council meeting motion on Gaza that Cllr Russell wanted to bring last year.

In her letter to voters, she suggested the Greens would be more challenging on issues such as dumped Lime bikes, littering in the Bourne estate and on big new planning developments, and would understand the day-to-day problems because they lived locally.

The Greens are fielding Jim Monahan, a co-founder of the Covent Garden Neighbourhood Association and a past Labour voter.

Another Green candidate, James White, was also previously involved in Labour, while the third is Hamza Chowdhury.

Council leader Richard Olszewski said Cllr Vincent’s attack was a “sad end” to her time at the Town Hall

Cllr Olszewski’s ward-switching is understood to have inspired greater interest in trying to organise an alternative choice in Holborn and Covent Garden after decades of Labour domination.

The leader explained his move last year as needing to stay focused on the day-to-day job of running the council, rather than fighting the Lib Dems in Fortune Green — where Labour looks to be in jeopardy of giving up ground.

Labour are teaming Cllr Olszewski’s candidacy with Livia Paggi, a former chair at the Queen’s Crescent Community Association, and Julian Fulbrook – now the longest-serving councillor at the Town Hall.

But Awale Olad, a ward resident, is standing down.

“James, Jim and myself were all former paid-up active members of the Labour Party,” Cllr Vincent said in her letter.

“Before the much-loved Frank Dobson MP died in 2019, he said to me that if he was starting out again in politics he would join the Green Party – and we all know how sensible our Frank was.”

It is understood the use of Mr Dobson’s name – when he is not here to give a view on the Labour government – has particularly angered Labour campaigners.

Cllr Russell said: “I’m really grateful to Sue for her support for our Green candidates in Holborn and Covent Garden. It takes real courage and principle to speak out and stand up for a different kind if politics. This is a brave decision and it reflects a shared desire to see more open, listening and community-led politics in Camden.”

Cllr Olszewski said last night: “Sue’s attack is a sad end to her lengthy career on Camden Council. Of course, I’m disappointed to see this, but Camden Labour has a strong team for Holborn and Covent Garden, driven by a lifelong commitment to Labour values.

“We hope to earn residents’ continued trust and will work tirelessly for communities across Holborn and Covent Garden if elected.”