Lorna Jane Russell switched from Labour to the Greens in 2021

A FORMER deputy mayor of Camden wants to stand in the South Hampstead by-election for the Greens.

While the selection process is ongoing, Lorna Jane Russell is understood to have made clear her ambitions to be selected as the party’s candidate at a meeting of the Fortune Green and West Hampstead last night (Monday).

She was a Labour councillor for seven years in Fortune Green before defecting to the Greens in October 2021, giving up her chance to become the Mayor of Camden in doing so.

Ms Russell said of Labour at the time: “I am concerned that the party lacks a coherent vision for the future, that it is prepared to break fundamental promises like those on common ownership and freedom of movement, and that it has a questionable track record on equalities.”

Locally, she added “the council has continually let down residents in the north-west of the borough”.

The New Journal revealed last week that Labour councillor Will Prince would be stepping down from the council less than a year after being elected in last May’s boroughwide elections. He was one of three Labour winners in the newly-created South Hampstead ward, the closest thing to the old Swiss Cottage voting district.

Earlier this month, Cllr Prince been the only Labour councillor on Camden Council’s planning committee to vote against the giant redevelopment project coming on the 02 Centre shopping centre site in Finchley Road. The skyline-changing scheme has been criticised for its scale.

Cllr Prince, who confirmed his resignation at the end of last week, said: “Whether through supporting residents on the ground during the flooding last December on Belsize Road and assisting those whose lives were turned upside down overnight, or through raising residents’ concerns about the O2 Centre development from my position on the planning committee, I have always tried to put the needs of the community first..”

None of the parties have so far named an official candidate for the contest.