The Camden Lib Dems assemble on the seafront

LIBERAL Democrats warned their Labour rivals in Camden that there is no place to hide now Sir Keir Starmer is prime minister, following years of blaming Tory governments for cuts.

They plan to take aim at the borough’s housing repairs service which they say is no better after 14 years of Labour rule at the Town Hall. The fighting talk came in Brighton this week as members gathered for the party’s annual autumn conference and where celebrations were in full swing for parliamentary gains across the country at the July general election.

Locally, the Lib Dems are the official opposition but still only have five councillors.

The next chance to build on that tally is scheduled to be the boroughwide elections in May 2026, by which time residents will have seen two years of a Labour government nationally.

In an interview at conference, group leader Councillor Tom Simon said: “Housing is an area that is crying out for investment and I think that failing to get to grips with housing undermines so many other areas of work that the council is trying to do.

“We have a situation in Camden where Labour has been running the council non-stop since 2010 and the problems we have with housing are now the same as we had then. They [the Labour group running the council] keep saying ‘oh we’re revamping this, we’re changing that, we’re making great progress’ but you still have the same complaints about damp, mould, missed appointments – not listening – and problems with temporary accommodation.

“It’s not the fault of officers at the coalface. There’s some great people working really hard in very stressful jobs but they’re just not getting the support that they need.”

He said that Camden had lost control of knowing who actually was living in its council homes and that a full audit was needed on how the properties were being used and by whom. The common response to stretched council services has been to blame local authority budgets slashed by central government, but Cllr Simon said this would have to change.

He said: “Richard Olszewski [council leader] frequently said, with his money hat on, basically this: ‘Just wait – when we’ve got a proper government, things are going to be different’.

Now there is a Labour government, they’re having to change their tune very quickly and you’ve asked Keir Starmer about investment in local government and he’s made zero commitments about that.”

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The Lib Dem leader added: “There are areas which are critical for the quality of people’s lives on a day-to-day basis and you have to not be scared of saying: Yes, we need to spend some money. That does seem to be a problem with a lot of politicians.” He said in Camden money could be raised from renting out office space at the council’s 5PS building in King’s Cross and selling the Crowndale Centre – the latter was met with angry opposition from Labour councillors when it was suggested at a budget-setting meeting earlier this year.

Mr Starmer’s new government, as had been predicted would happen before the election by many pundits, said they had found the public finances in a worse state than they had expected when arriving in power and have continued to blame the Tories for their “difficult decisions”.

In Camden, Labour speakers repeatedly reference the Conservative administrations, and occasionally still bring up the coalition which the Lib Dems formed with the Tories – now nearly 10 years after it was disbanded. Although it may seem a long way off, the political groups in Camden will be seeing the local elections on the horizon and working out which issues they will campaign on.

In the past the Lib Dems have fared better in Camden and in neighbouring Islington when Labour are in power nationally. During these times it’s up to local Labour councillors to show they can draw positive results from their colleagues at Westminster, but also face defending choices made by Mr Starmer’s government, such as refusing to end the two-child benefit cap and the new means testing of winter fuel payments for the elderly.

Cllr Simon said that his party had been known for its opposition to Brexit but said the UK would have to rebuild a meaningful relationship before anybody’s policy could be to rejoin.

He said a quick win for Mr Starmer would be the restoration of the Erasmus scheme, which helped young people study abroad – a university exchange programme lost in the divorce from the European Union.