James Small-Edwards with, from left, his aunt Cheryl, grandmother Evadney, and his mother Heather

WHEN Liz Truss walked out on to the stage at the Conservative Party conference on Tuesday, she was keen to show that it was a “reset” from the chaotic previous fortnight.

The prime minister and her team had chosen the upbeat 90s pop track Movin’ On Up by M People, to try and signal they were moving on from the economic turmoil they found themselves in.

It appeared they had neither checked the lyrics to the song, which has lines including “Move right out of here, baby, go on pack your bags”, and that one of Westminster’s Labour councillors, James Small-Edwards, is the son of singer Heather Small.

The Bayswater councillor, who was elected for the first time in May, said: “It was an odd choice of song, it seems like they hadn’t really listened to the lyrics. I was surprised that they didn’t know I am a Labour councillor. It suggests that the Conservatives’ comms team is as effective as their economics one.”

Cllr Small-Edwards was one of the two Labour councillors who got their results at 6am, as part of the biggest story of the night when the party won Westminster City Council for the first time. The Bayswater result was expected, and paved the way for shock gains in Lancaster Gate. National newspapers ran photos of the 25-year-old triumphantly punching the air.

“It was a quite incredible day and night, one of the longest days of my life. I was up at 5:30am to go to Bayswater and doing a leaflet drop at 7am. It was then such a busy day, and we thought we would do well in Bayswater, but there’s no guarantees until the boxes are opened. Then we saw how it was going and that it was going to be Lancaster Gate to get us over the line.

“By 6am I was pure adrenaline and energy drinks. It was quite emotional in many ways because of what it all meant. We got the results that meant we won the council, and went outside for a group photo.”

Rather than go out for celebratory drinks or sleep after more than 24 hours awake, he met his dad, former rugby league international Shaun Edwards, who had been campaigning for him that day, to go to a family funeral up in Wigan. “He’d managed to get some sleep, and of course it was really strange to go straight to a funeral, but it was nice to see family and they had all seen the results and were congratulating me.”

The council’s deputy planning and business chief said his house wasn’t an overt Labour household growing up, “it was like supporting a football team”, and that his parents taught him values that led him to lean towards the Labour party. “It was a moral and social justice kind of household. I was taught values like honesty and decency which helped form my progressive and socialist politics.”

His first political memory is the 2010 general election, and cast his first vote in the 2015 general election when Ed Miliband lost to David Cameron. However one of his formative experiences which spurred him to get more deeply involved in politics was volunteering at North Paddington Foodbank during the Covid pandemic. Cllr Small-Edwards adds that he’s most proud of the council giving £130,000 to support foodbanks since they got in to power.

“I felt it was clear that a foodbank was only a short term fix to help people and you needed long term solutions. I thought if I was really serious about wanting to change it I should put myself forward,” he said.

He grew up with his grandmother, who was part of the Windrush generation who came to the UK from Barbados in the 1960s, in Maida Vale.

He said: “You hear and can see the difficulties that she and her generations faced. You can see now that the government is only interested in carrying that on too. I think my grandmother and my mum can’t believe that their grandson and son is now councillor for the borough they’ve lived in and the ward they have done so much in.

“My mum and my aunt had a flat together in their 20s in Westbourne Grove and my dad used to drink in the Cow pub that is in my ward.

“Being a councillor is busy, but I love it, I love being busy and it’s a privilege to be able to represent people in Westminster.”