No room for Labour in City of London

The Labour Party has failed to get into the City of London Corporation after none of its candidates was chosen in elections. The corporation, which is the governing body of the City, will therefore remain "non political," as all its members keep being independent.

Labour was seeking to become the first political party to be represented in the City of London Corporation in its near 900-year history.

"The full range of residents' and workers' views in the City is not being heard, as Labour is not represented at the corporation," said Peter Kenyon, secretary of the City of London Labour Party, when he announced Labour's intention to contest this year's elections.

There were only eight Labour candidates contesting six of the 25 wards in the City, although given the number of candidates only 13 wards had contested elections. Labour candidates were the least voted in four of the six wards they were contesting.

However, Mr Kenyon was satisfied with the results: "We have broken the 'taboo' concerning standing in the name of a mainstream political party. Besides, in the residential wards our results were consistent with Labour's standing in national opinion polls."

Martin Dudley has been an elected member of the corporation since 2002 and he just was re-elected as independent. Mr Dudley said: "I was surprised when Kenyon launched his attempt to get Labour members of the corporation.

Photo credit: Daniel Pisano

"What was stranger was the spurious arguments against us being independent, especially the claim that we have no declared policies. It was good to have a contested election but it was a contest about the wrong things."

The total electorate was 21,423. Of those only 6,431 were residents and the businesses and organisations based in the City got the remaining 14,992 votes, with the voting share being relative to their number of staff.

The City of London Corporation is the last authority in the UK whose members are elected by businesses as well as residents. The business vote was abolished in all the other local authorities in Britain in 1969.

Jeremy Mayhew, who has been a member of the corporation since 1996, says that is the right way to hold elections in the City: "I think the tradition of non-party politics is a good one and helps both residents and businesses to be represented more effectively in all sorts of contexts." Mr Mayhew has just been re-elected as independent.

But Mr Kenyon says the corporation does not follow a non-party politics: "The City is already highly politicised. A significant number of aldermen and common councilmen are members of political parties, the Freemasons or other 'secret societies'. We will continue to campaign for openness and transparency in City governance."

Elections to the corporation take place every four years. Voters elect 25 aldermen, one for each ward, and 100 common councilmen. Both aldermen and councilmen together make up the City's Court of Common Council, the main decision making body of the corporation.

Traditionally national political parties have not been represented by any members of the Court of the Common Council, with all elected members in the history of the City being independent or not stating any political affiliation - even though they can be members of a political party.

The City of London has a unique political status and the corporation has some uncommon responsibilities for a local authority, such as being the police authority for the City. It also owns and is responsible for a number of locations beyond the boundaries of the City, including Epping Forest, Hampstead Heath and Old Spitafields Market.

The City is also known as the Square Mile, as its surface covers almost exactly that area (2.6km²). Both designations are often used to mean the UK's financial industry, which is mainly based within the Square Mile. The City is actually the main financial centre in Europe and its GDP counts for 4 percent of the UK total, making it bigger than that of countries like Bulgaria, Croatia or Uruguay.

The City has been administered separately since the year 886, although it was in 1132 when Henry I recognised its full County. In 1141 the whole body of the citizenry was finally considered to form a single community and this was the origin of the City of London Corporation, which has remained basically unchanged since that time.