Cabinet elections: Oliver Lewis tipped to be contender

AWALE Olad fans out there,  stand down. He baldly tweeted yesterday that he has no interest in standing for the vacant slots in Camden Council’s decision-making cabinet, openings triggered by the departures of Theo Blackwell and Phil Jones.  Oliver Lewis, the Highgate councillor who supported his ward colleague Sally Gimson’s challenge to Sarah Hayward’s leadership last May, however, was being tipped as a likely contender yesterday. That term ‘underused talent’ has come up a couple of times. He joins Danny Beales and Adam Harrison among the names being circulated.

It is still just two slots available as Abdul Hai is staying in post, with the blessing of new leader Georgia Gould, despite the muffled friction over his new director job with Market Tech, the company behind the redevelopment of Camden Lock. Some in the group had apparently thought, as there are going to be cabinet elections anyway, he might’ve thought it would be a smooth moment to downgrade his political role but, as he’s taken legal advice, dropped some of his duties and got the ok, he presses on. Some of his responsibilities, slightly ironically and a little like a merry-go-round, had been offloaded to Cllr Jones after he took the new job.