The husband of former prime minister Liz Truss is among the candidates in the most unpredictable Greenwich Council election for more than half a century.
Hugh O’Leary is standing for the Conservatives in Woolwich Arsenal ward on May 7, nearly four years after his wife began her short but calamitous spell in Downing Street.
Greenwich has been a safe Labour council since 1971 and came close to winning every seat in the town hall at the last poll in 2022. Labour currently has 47 of Greenwich’s 55 councillors.
But now Labour faces its most perilous election since 1968, when it briefly lost control to the Conservatives in a poll held amid wider economic turmoil and the aftermath of Enoch Powell’s notorious “rivers of blood” speech.
National and international politics will play an even bigger role in this election than usual as UK-wide opinion polls show a fragmented electorate amid a fragile economy and war in the Middle East.
Only a handful of seats at Woolwich Town Hall normally change hands at each election. But this time nearly all wards are in play to some extent, with speculation that Labour could lose its majority – a prospect that until recently had been unthinkable.
The Greens are standing in every ward for the first time as they seek to build on their current tally of two councillors, while Reform UK is putting forward a full slate of candidates, up from just seven in 2022. Jeremy Corbyn’s troubled Your Party is making its debut in Greenwich politics, offering candidates in Plumstead & Glyndon and Woolwich Dockyard.
But of the 278 candidates standing this time, only the Conservatives are fielding someone who has lived at 10 Downing Street. O’Leary, a 51-year-old accountant, has been married to Truss since 2000. The couple are understood to be still living in west Greenwich.
Truss herself was a Greenwich councillor in the old Eltham South ward between 2006 and 2010, when she quit to pursue a career in parliament that culminated in her disastrous mini-budget in September 2022, leaving her as the shortest-serving prime minister. She recently launched a podcast in which she blamed “the deep state and the mainstream media” for her ousting after 49 days.
O’Leary, who is well-liked among local Tories, is highly unlikely to win in a ward dominated by the Royal Arsenal and Woolwich town centre. He has previously stood for the Tories in other unwinnable seats in 2002 and 2006. The Woolwich Arsenal contest is expected to be a straight fight between Labour and the Greens.
A large number of Labour councillors stepping down means a surge of new faces on the ballot for the party, including former Southwark Council leader Jeremy Fraser standing in Eltham Park & Progress.
But other wards tell a less happy story: after Labour lost the Shooters Hill by-election to the Greens last year, the party’s remaining councillor, Raja Zeeshan, has quit to stand in safer Woolwich Dockyard instead. Jummy Dawudo, the candidate who lost that by-election after criticising local campaigns in her leaflets, is standing in Abbey Wood.
Thamesmead Moorings councillor Olu Babatola has emerged in the far south of the borough, in Middle Park & Horn Park, after being deselected by his home party – despite having won 70 per cent of the vote in Thamesmead last time out. Christine May, deselected in Middle Park, is now hoping to win over voters in Eltham Page.
The Greens have picked up local campaigners to stand for them who previously had little association with politics: they include Patrick Ives of the residents’ association in East Greenwich and David Monteith, who campaigned against adventure play centre closures and is now standing in Plumstead Common.
Anne-Marie Cousins, who quit Labour after being barred from standing by the party, is standing as an independent in Abbey Wood with the backing of the Greens.
Reform will be banking on a former Labour councillor, Don Austen, to lead its push onto the council. He is standing in Kidbrooke Park, while the party is expected to gain support in Eltham Page and Middle Park & Horn Park.
The Greenwich Wire understands that Nigel Farage’s party has been scrambling for candidates, calling people on its contact lists and emailing to ask if they have partners or relatives who wish to stand. The party has also been declining invites to stand in hustings.
One candidate, Alan Cecil – who will take on Labour leader Anthony Okereke in Woolwich Common – is already a councillor: he represents Wilmington, just south of Dartford, on Kent County Council, which the party won control of last year.
The Conservatives will be hoping to hang on to their seats in Eltham Town and Mottingham, Coldharbour & New Eltham, while former councillor Geoff Brighty will be hoping to win his old Blackheath Westcombe seat back.
And the Liberal Democrats will be hoping to build on their vote surge in the West Thamesmead by-election, with Emmanuel Idowu and Mursal Siyid standing in the seat, as well as eyeing up Blackheath Westcombe.
Other eye-catching names include Lenin standing for the Tories – Lenin Erazo is the party’s candidate in Plumstead Common. Austin Powers is standing for Reform in Abbey Wood.
The election will be a family affair in one household – Arthur Drury, the son of Greenwich’s former Conservative leader Spencer Drury, is standing for the Greens in Eltham Park & Progress while his father is standing for the Tories in Eltham Page. His sister, Kate, is standing for the Conservatives in Kidbrooke Village.
Arthur was unavailable to speak to The Greenwich Wire, but Spencer, who served on the council for 20 years, said: “I don’t think there’s much of an ideological divide about how you fill the potholes.
“There have always been interesting people around our dinner table: trade union leaders, Greens, Liberal Democrats, there’s discussion and ideas. I think Arthur’s one of the rare people who actually knows what being a councillor is about because he’s seen it up close.
“I think he attended his first cabinet meeting when he was about four. I’m very proud of him.”
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