Nanouche Umeadi celebrates a return to the council with colleagues at the Town Hall count

RESULT:
NANOUCHE UMEADI (LABOUR) 576 ELECTED

Alice Brown (GREEN PARTY) 482
Mohammad Junayd Khan (INDEPENDENT) 402
Vladimir Chorniy (CONSERVATIVE) 137
Beverley Martin (REFORM) 123
Henry Potts (LIBERAL DEMOCRATS) 51
Turnout: 21.93 per cent

LABOUR has recouped one of the seats it lost to the Greens at May’s council elections after sealing victory in a fresh vote in Regent’s Park.

Winning by-election candidate Nanouche Umeadi lost her seat in Kilburn during those boroughwide polls eight weeks ago – but has made a near instant return in a new ward.

She said:  “We worked really hard. The whole team, the Labour group haven’t had a single break – and I couldn’t have done it without the team. My style of politics is always to be very human and I told a story, I told my story. Even at the hustings, some people that were undecided told me on the day ‘actually now I’ve heard you, we are going to vote for you’. It’s going to be a lot of work, but the good thing is I’m an experienced councillor so people are definitely going to benefit from it.”

The Greens took all three seats in Regent’s Park ward in May, unseating three former Labour mayors in the process. But it quickly emerged that one of their new councillors, Mohammed Abu Naser, would not be able to be inducted because he worked in a council-run secondary school. This lead to a fresh round of voting to find a replacement.

Mr Abu Naser has since left the Green Party accusing the party of mishandling his candidacy and supported independent candidate Mohammad Junayd Khan, who said he was urged to stand by the community. His challenge, however, split the opposition to Labour in the contest: if only one of the Greens or the independent candidate had stood, then the final result – on a low turnout – might have been different.

Mr Khan said: ““I want to lie down for six months, ut I’m really proud of the people that came out and supported me – my friends, family, residents everyone from children to the elderly. They may be disappointed but they will be proud.

“I’ve never done anything like this in my life before and I’m not sure I will do it again but it was an incredible experience.”