Councillor Ollie Steadman

A LABOUR councillor has quit just two months after being elected, but neither he nor the party will say why.

Councillor Ollie Steadman, who was elected at the beginning of May and had been out on the doorstep for the party during the general election campaign, will not continue in the role he had pledged to bring “commitment, passion and joy” to.

He has not responded to our calls and the Labour group at the Town Hall has not commented on why he has resigned – a decision which will mean residents in Hillrise will be forced to go back to polling stations to choose a new councillor.

If he had resigned just a few weeks earlier, Mr Steadman could have saved Islington some of the expense of holding yet another by-election as it is always cheaper to hold them on the same day as a general election using the same facilities.

The wider Labour Party was also approached for comment on the circumstances, without response.

In May, Mr Steadman was happy to talk about his by-election win, saying he wanted to use his experience working for the mental health charity Mind to advocate for residents on a local level.

While there has been no public statement on his decision to leave the council as one of the shortest-ever serving councillors, it is understood the Labour group was told he had resigned due to “personal reasons”.

Ollie Steadman, campaigning with Sadiq Khan in April, has resigned after 69 days as a councillor

The bill for holding a new by-election will run into thousands, and questions have been raised over the timing of Mr Steadman’s announcement – only days after a general election campaign in which Labour was keen to avoid any controversy, both locally and nationally. With speculation rife in Islington’s political circles, the Tribune had begun asking questions about Mr Steadman’s status at the Town Hall last week – well before voters had gone to the polls.

The classic “who knew what when” combination of questions remains unanswered.

Shreya Nanda, who was on the longlist to be Labour’s parliamentary candidate in Islington North before the party chose Councillor Praful Nargund without a members’ vote, has been the first to put her name forward as being interested in standing for Labour in the by-election.

Normally a Labour stronghold, one party source said there were worries that support had been hit by the loss of long-term campaigners who had been forced out due to their support for Jeremy Corbyn’s independent campaign.

Councillor Ilkay Cinko-Oner, who resigned from the Labour Party last week, and will now sit on the council as an independent, said: “Hillrise is one of those areas where easily a Green or an independent could swing it.

“[But] if it’s a Labour candidate that is in Islington that’s on the left, and whose only role is to be the representative of the ward, then by all means go ahead.”

Benali Hamdache, a Green councillor in Highbury, said: “Residents will be very surprised to be asked to go back to the polls in Hillrise so soon.

“The general election result shows there’s a hunger for a vision bolder and clearer than Keir Starmer’s Labour Party. I’m sure Greens will do well in this by-election.”