Claire-Louise Vaculik[1] (née Leyland) is an English Conservative politician. She was the leader of the Conservatives on Camden London Borough Council from 2014 to 2018, and represented Belsize on the council from 2010 to 2018. She has stood unsuccessfully for Parliament twice: in West Tyrone in 2015 and her home seat of Hampstead and Kilburn in 2017.
Claire-Louise Leyland | |
|---|---|
| Leader of the Opposition on Camden Borough Council | |
| In office May 2014 – February 2018 | |
| Preceded by | Keith Moffitt |
| Succeeded by | Gio Spinella |
| Leader of the Conservative Group on Camden Borough Council | |
| In office May 2013 – February 2018 | |
| Preceded by | Andrew Mennear |
| Succeeded by | Gio Spinella |
| Councillor for Belsize | |
| In office May 2010 – May 2018 | |
| Personal details | |
| Born | South Africa |
| Political party | Conservative |
Early life and education
editLeyland was born in South Africa and attended Wynberg Girls' High School in Cape Town, followed by Stellenbosch University and Rhodes University.[2] She moved to London in 1998 to study further at Goldsmiths and Middlesex University.[2]
Career
editLeyland is an art therapist by profession,[3][4] and is the chair of the British Association of Art Therapists, the British professional body for art therapists.[1] She edited the book Integrative Arts Psychotherapy.[5]
Leyland was elected to Camden London Borough Council in 2010 to represent Belsize, and won the seat back from the Liberal Democrats. She became the leader of the Conservatives in 2013 (when they were the third largest party) and became the leader of the opposition in 2014, when the Liberal Democrats lost all but one seat. As leader of the opposition, she made national news by advocating more CCTV in Belsize Park,[6] and criticising Camden Council for spending money on publicising the fact it had no money.[7]
At the 2015 general election, Leyland stood as the Conservative candidate for West Tyrone in Northern Ireland. She came eighth and lost her deposit, being just three votes ahead of the last-placed candidate.[8] It was the party's sixth-lowest vote share at that election.[9]
Leyland voted to remain in the 2016 EU referendum.[10] She was selected for Hampstead and Kilburn at the 2017 general election, beating Henry Newman and Kemi Badenoch,[11][12] and her candidacy in the strongly anti-Brexit constituency was dubbed 'Clash of the Remainers'.[3] She was criticised for downplaying being a Conservative and instead being promoted as "Theresa May's candidate".[13][14] Leyland finished as a distant second, with a large swing towards the Labour incumbent, Tulip Siddiq. Leyland stood down from Camden Council in 2018.
Electoral results
edit| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Conservative | Jonny Bucknell | 1,969 | 36.1 | −1.0 | |
| Conservative | Claire-Louise Leyland | 1,969 | 36.1 | −0.1 | |
| Liberal Democrats | Tom Simon * | 1,949 | 35.7 | −5.1 | |
| Conservative | Nigel Rumble | 1,897 | 34.8 | −0.9 | |
| Liberal Democrats | Anne Ward | 1,746 | 32.0 | −8.5 | |
| Liberal Democrats | Paul Perkins | 1,727 | 31.7 | −6.4 | |
| Labour | Samantha Gunasekera | 1,094 | 20.1 | +6.2 | |
| Labour | Sada Deshmukh | 1,051 | 19.3 | +5.1 | |
| Labour | Luca Salice | 1,027 | 18.8 | +6.5 | |
| Green | Anya Courts | 410 | 7.5 | −0.3 | |
| Green | Sophie North | 372 | 6.8 | −1.6 | |
| Green | Francesca Richards-Spiller | 325 | 6.0 | −0.2 | |
| BNP | Derek Collins | 90 | 1.7 | N/A | |
| Turnout | 5,454 | 62.3 | +24.0 | ||
| Conservative gain from Liberal Democrats | Swing | ||||
| Conservative gain from Liberal Democrats | Swing | ||||
| Liberal Democrats hold | Swing | ||||
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Conservative | Jonny Bucknell* | 1,219 | 37.3 | +1.2 | |
| Conservative | Claire-Louise Leyland * | 1,157 | 35.4 | −0.7 | |
| Conservative | Leila Roy | 1,016 | 31.1 | −3.7 | |
| Liberal Democrats | Tom Simon* | 992 | 30.3 | −5.4 | |
| Labour | Madeleine Jennings | 939 | 28.7 | +8.6 | |
| Labour | James McGowan | 782 | 23.9 | +4.6 | |
| Liberal Democrats | Bradley Hillier-Smith | 760 | 23.2 | −8.8 | |
| Labour | Harunur Rashid | 709 | 21.7 | +2.9 | |
| Liberal Democrats | Lawrence Joseph Nicholson | 678 | 20.7 | −11.0 | |
| Green | Rowan St Clair | 275 | 8.4 | +0.9 | |
| Green | Darren Robert Murphy | 269 | 8.2 | +1.4 | |
| Green | Stuart Temple Taylor | 243 | 7.4 | +1.4 | |
| Independent | Nigel Rumble | 199 | 6.1 | −28.7 | |
| Turnout | 9,257 | 38.3 | −24.0 | ||
| Conservative hold | Swing | ||||
| Conservative hold | Swing | ||||
| Conservative gain from Liberal Democrats | Swing | ||||
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sinn Féin | Pat Doherty | 16,807 | 43.5 | ―4.9 | |
| DUP | Thomas Buchanan | 6,747 | 17.5 | ―2.3 | |
| SDLP | Daniel McCrossan | 6,444 | 16.7 | +2.7 | |
| UUP | Ross Hussey | 6,144 | 15.9 | +1.7 | |
| Alliance | Stephen Donnelly | 869 | 2.2 | ―0.1 | |
| Green (NI) | Ciaran McClean | 780 | 2.0 | New | |
| CISTA | Barry Brown | 528 | 1.4 | New | |
| NI Conservatives | Claire-Louise Leyland | 169 | 0.4 | New | |
| Independent | Susan-Anne White | 166 | 0.4 | New | |
| Majority | 10,060 | 26.0 | ―2.6 | ||
| Turnout | 38,654 | 60.5 | ―0.5 | ||
| Registered electors | 63,856 | ||||
| Sinn Féin hold | Swing | ―1.3 | |||
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Labour | Tulip Siddiq | 34,464 | 59.0 |  14.6
| |
| Conservative | Claire-Louise Leyland | 18,904 | 32.4 |  9.9
| |
| Liberal Democrats | Kirsty Allan | 4,100 | 7.0 | 1.4
| |
| Green | John Mansook | 742 | 1.3 | 3.1
| |
| Independent | Hugh Easterbrook | 136 | 0.2 | New | |
| Independent | Rainbow George Weiss | 61 | 0.1 | New | |
| Majority | 15,560 | 26.6 | 24.5
| ||
| Turnout | 58,407 | 70.4 | 3.1
| ||
| Registered electors | 82,957 | ||||
| Labour hold | Swing | 12.3
|
|||
References
edit- ^ a b "BAAT Council & Honorary Positions".
- ^ a b "SA-born politician aims for Westminster". Sunday Times. 26 April 2015 – via PressReader.
- ^ a b "Clash of the Remainers: Tory thrives in bid to turn Hampstead blue". 31 May 2017.
- ^ "Meet London's new generation of Conservative MPS". 4 May 2017.
- ^ "Integrative Arts Psychotherapy".
- ^ "CCTV plea after four shops targeted in £30k burglary spree". ITV News. 15 January 2017.
- ^ "Council criticised for cuts campaign". BBC News. 30 October 2014.
- ^ "West Tyrone (Constituency) 2015 results - General election results". UK Parliament. Retrieved 6 July 2022.
- ^ Hawkins, Oliver; Keen, Richard; Nakatudde, Nambassa (28 July 2015). "General Election 2015 - BRIEFING PAPER Number CBP7186" (PDF). UK Parliament - House of Commons Library. Retrieved 6 July 2022.
- ^ "UK election: Can Tories take remainer land?". Financial Times (video). 2 May 2017.
- ^ "May targets Hampstead Remainers".
- ^ "Claire-Louise Leyland selected for Hampstead and Kilburn". 25 April 2017.
- ^ "Introducing Theresa May's local candidates". The Spectator. 4 May 2017. Retrieved 30 May 2020.
- ^ "Tory candidates are ditching their party name in favour of Theresa May's". Independent.co.uk. 4 May 2017.