Georgia Gould has cleared her desk at the Town Hall and moved to the House of Commons

CAMDEN Council’s leader and two other Labour councillors officially resigned on  Thursday after becoming MPs – triggering by-elections and opening up the top job at the Town Hall.

The ruling Labour group needs somebody in place at the helm by Monday’s full council meeting, and will meet over the weekend to decided who should succeed Georgia Gould – now the MP for Queen’s Park and Maida Vale.

While such events are often bloodless coronations for a natural candidate, this will be a contest due to the amount of interest.

Sabrina Francis, Sagal Abdi-Wali, Marcus Boyland, Nash Ali, Nadia Shah, Richard Olszewski and Meric Apak have been the most gossiped about councillors in terms of those who would like to be considered.

There will also be a new council cabinet to form with regeneration chief Councillor Danny Beales ­– a bête noir of the loudest critics of Camden’s development policies – now the MP for Uxbridge and South Ruislip.

He had served for 10 years as a councillor.

It’s farewell to Danny Beales – the new MP for Uxbridge and South Ruislip

The third vacancy opened up by the general election earthquake is the chief whip role, which was held by Lloyd Hatton, who reached parliament by winning in South Dorset, just two years after being elected as a Labour councillor here.

The by-elections will take place in Kentish Town South, Camden Square and Kilburn, which are traditionally strong seats for Labour.
In these areas, residents will have been asked to go the polling station three times in as many months.

Lloyd Hatton’s brief turn as a councillor for Kilburn is over after he became an MP

Seven of the councillors who asked voters to elect them for four years in 2022 have now left the Town Hall little more than half the way through the full term.

Ms Gould took over as the leader of the council in 2017 after the resignation of Sarah Hayward.

She was in charge during the Chalcots fire safety evacuation and the Covid crisis lockdowns. Within days of becoming an MP, she was called up by

Sir Keir Starmer to be his new government’s Parliamentary Secretary for the Cabinet.

You can find out who the next leader of Camden Council will be on our website after Sunday’s voting.