Taking the reins in Islington: Councillor Kaya Comer-Schwartz

ISLINGTON’S first black leader took the reins on Thursday in the first meeting to be held back in the council chamber after the coronavirus lockdowns.

Councillor Kaya Comer-Schwartz has taken the baton from Richard Watts, who announced he was stepping down from the role after eight years in April, and has since been recruited to Mayor of London Sadiq Khan’s team at City Hall.

“I stand here incredibly proud to be the first black woman to become leader of Islington Council,” Cllr Comer-Schwartz told the meeting.

“Too many in our community are held back because of inequalities in society. It cannot be right that young black people are three times more likely to be permanently excluded. It cannot be right that 9 per cent of black people in the UK are unemployed compared to 4 per cent of white people. It cannot be right that black people are 10 times more likely to be stopped and searched.”

Only 12 councillors gathered in the Town Hall chamber while the meeting was streamed online. The government rejected pleas to maintain virtual meetings and has asked councils to return to in-person arrangements.

Regulations that allowed meetings to be held online ended on May 6 after a legal bid by the local government association (LGA) to extend measures was dismissed in the high court.

At the same meeting, Troy Gallagher was sworn in as the new mayor of Islington – the first in the borough’s history to be born in Eire.

He said: “There can be no greater honour than being elected mayor of Islington. I am very aware that I carry the hope, the dreams, the aspirations of many.”

Cllr Gallagher said he will spend his year with the mayoral chain supporting suicide prevention charity James’ Place, ICAP, which supports people from the Irish community facing mental health issues and the LGBTQ+ charity, Forum+.

He said: “I have seen first hand the pain of those suffering from depression and anxiety as a result of crisis through the loss of the lockdown, the loss of jobs, the loss of income, the loss of self-esteem, but most of all through the loss of self.”

He added: “I have also seen the forms of discrimination through homophobia and transphobia. The ever-growing number of young people suffering from suicide. That can no longer be tolerated. We need change. Suicide does not discriminate through age, race or gender.”

In her first speech as leader, Cllr Comer-Schwartz said Islington was feeling the effects of cuts to local government funding.

She said: “Inequality has many layers and we know the impact that poverty has on the people in our borough. In Islington, 40 per cent of our children grow up in poverty.

“This can have long- lasting effects and we must ensure as a council that we intervene early, stopping these effects taking hold.

“Our council house building programme is key to lifting many a number out of poverty and into decent, secure and genuinely affordable homes.”

She continued: “The last year has shown the impact of health inequality in our society. We have seen the disproportionate impact that Covid has had on the least vulnerable including black, Asian and ethnic minority communities.

“To make our borough a fairer place we must also make our borough a healthier place and that is why the council’s net zero carbon programme and its ambitions are so important.”

She added: “We have worked hard to ensure that we could provide vital services and protect our most vulnerable from the worst of austerity but if we are to move forward and support our borough, we need to end this austerity.”