Claire-Louise Leyland
Leader of the Opposition on Camden Borough Council
In office
May 2014 – February 2018
Preceded byKeith Moffitt
Succeeded byGio Spinella
Leader of the Conservative Group on Camden Borough Council
In office
May 2013 – February 2018
Preceded byAndrew Mennear
Succeeded byGio Spinella
Councillor for Belsize
In office
May 2010 – May 2018
Personal details
BornSouth Africa
Political partyConservative

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.

Early life and education

Leyland 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

Leyland 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

2010 Camden local election - Belsize ward (3 seats)
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
2014 Camden local election - Belsize ward (3 seats)
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
General election 2015: West Tyrone
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
Ulster Unionist 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
General election 2017: Hampstead and Kilburn
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Labour Tulip Siddiq 34,464 59.0 Increase14.6
Conservative Claire-Louise Leyland 18,904 32.4 Decrease9.9
Liberal Democrats Kirsty Allan 4,100 7.0 Increase1.4
Green John Mansook 742 1.3 Decrease3.1
Independent Hugh Easterbrook 136 0.2 New
Independent Rainbow George Weiss 61 0.1 New
Majority 15,560 26.6 Increase24.5
Turnout 58,407 70.4 Increase3.1
Registered electors 82,957
Labour hold Swing Increase12.3

References

  1. 1 2 "BAAT Council & Honorary Positions".
  2. 1 2 "SA-born politician aims for Westminster". Sunday Times. 26 April 2015 – via PressReader.
  3. 1 2 "Clash of the Remainers: Tory thrives in bid to turn Hampstead blue". 31 May 2017.
  4. ↑ "Meet London's new generation of Conservative MPS". 4 May 2017.
  5. ↑ "Integrative Arts Psychotherapy".
  6. ↑ "CCTV plea after four shops targeted in £30k burglary spree". ITV News. 15 January 2017.
  7. ↑ "Council criticised for cuts campaign". BBC News. 30 October 2014.
  8. ↑ "West Tyrone (Constituency) 2015 results - General election results". UK Parliament. Retrieved 6 July 2022.
  9. ↑ 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.
  10. ↑ "UK election: Can Tories take remainer land?". Financial Times (video). 2 May 2017.
  11. ↑ "May targets Hampstead Remainers".
  12. ↑ "Claire-Louise Leyland selected for Hampstead and Kilburn". 25 April 2017.
  13. ↑ "Introducing Theresa May's local candidates". The Spectator. 4 May 2017. Retrieved 30 May 2020.
  14. ↑ "Tory candidates are ditching their party name in favour of Theresa May's". Independent.co.uk. 4 May 2017.
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