Labour choose Sagal Abdi-Wali as new Camden leader

Camden’s Labour party has chosen the borough’s next leader of the council after their former boss unexpectedly lost his seat at the local elections.

Cllr Sagal Abdi-Wali will lead Labour’s slim majority on the council following the election results on Friday 8 May. The election saw several Labour councillors defeated by the Green Party — including now ex-council leader Richard Olszewski in Holborn and Covent Garden.

The 30 remaining Labour members held a swift contest on Monday 11 May to fill the vacuum left by the sudden exit of their leader.

Two candidates put their names forward: Cllr Abdi-Wali (Camden Square) and Cllr Adam Harrison (Bloomsbury).

In the first round of voting it was a dead heat between the two. In a second poll, Abdi-Wali came out on top after one councillor changed their vote, reported the Camden New Journal.

Abdi-Wali is yet to be officially confirmed as the Town Hall’s new political head by a vote of the full council, which is set to meet on Wednesday 20 May.

She is poised to make history as the borough’s first Black woman leader. Speaking to the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS), she said: “I feel really proud. Camden gave me a home and a sanctuary when we first came to this country as refugees, and being able to serve our communities is one of the great honours of my life.

“At same time, obviously we’re very saddened. None of us were expecting to lose our leader and our colleagues,” she added.

Abdi-Wali arrived in Camden as a child refugee when her family fled war-torn Somalia, and was raised and educated in the borough. She was elected as a local councillor for Camden Square in 2022 and re-elected at the 2026 elections in a tight race between Labour and the Greens.

Since May 2024, she has served as cabinet member for better homes. In November that year the council was hit by a damning special investigation report from the housing Ombudsman, who criticised its “defensive” complaints culture and poor performance on repairs and maintenance.

Abdi-Wali is now undertaking a cabinet reshuffle with her new top team and committee appointments being confirmed at Wednesday’s meeting of full council.

In the wake of the Labour holding onto its majority at the May elections but losing 17 seats, Abdi-Wali said she wanted to build on the party’s “successes” and make them felt more widely.

“On the doorstep, we heard that there’s a lot of us to be proud of, such as our Outstanding ratings for Adult Social Care and Children’s Services,” she said. “But people are wanting all our services to work for them. Listening to residents is a big part of what we’ll be doing to ensure this is a council that understands them and the council’s success reaches every corner of the community.”

Ahead of the 7 May poll, Camden’s now ex-leader Olszewski switched from his ward seat in Fortune Green to avoid a marginal contest against the Liberal Democrats. He lost to the Greens in Holborn and Covent Garden, coming in sixth place.

Olszewski congratulated Abdi-Wali on Tuesday 12 May, calling her a “dedicated housing campaigner who will be a great forward-looking leader for Camden”.

Labour has enjoyed a sizeable majority on Camden Council since 2014 but now faces a larger opposition in the Greens, who gained 10 seats at the recent elections, and the Liberal Democrats, who gained six. The Conservatives won three seats, and the Camden People’s Alliance gain a seat from Labour in St Pancras & Somers Town.

As leader of Camden Greens, now the second-largest group on the council, Cllr Lorna Jane Russell is widely expected to be confirmed as the Leader of the Opposition next week.

Reacting to the news, she told the LDRS: “I congratulate Cllr Sagal Abdi-Wali on becoming leader of Camden and making history as the borough’s first Black woman leader. This is an important moment for Camden, and we wish her well as she takes on this role at a challenging time for the borough.

“As the largest opposition party, Camden Greens will work constructively with the new administration where we can, but we will also continue to challenge Labour where they need to be challenged — particularly on housing, where too many residents have been let down for too long.”

The Greens actually won 11 seats in the election but one candidate, Muhammad Abu Naser who took a seat in Regent’s Park ward, has been barred from taking his post as he is employed as a teacher at a Camden-run school, something which election rules do not allow as the local authority is his employer. A by-election will be held, possibly in July, to fill the vacancy.

The 10 elected Green councillors will form a group with Cllr Shah Bakth of the Camden People’s Alliance.

Additional reporting by Linus Rees.

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