One former Labour councillor has said that the candidate selection process is “deeply flawed”
Two more West London councillors have resigned from the Labour Party ahead of the 2026 local elections.
Councillor Riaz Gull, and former Deputy Mayor Cllr Harleen Atwal Hear, both representing Heston Central on Hounslow Council, resigned last week. The two councillors will now sit as independents, bringing the total number of independent councillors in Hounslow to four.
Cllr Atwal Hear told the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) that she was planning to stand down in 2026, and did not sit a selection interview. However, she says the environment within Hounslow Labour is such that she could not continue until May 2026.
She added: “Working for Hounslow Labour has been toxic. That’s all I can say, I haven’t enjoyed any of it, and it’s getting so stressful what is happening now.”
The LDRS understands that Cllr Riaz Gull had been deselected prior to his resignation. It is understood that there have been further deselections which are not yet public.
The LDRS contacted Hounslow Labour for comment. A spokesperson told the LDRS that the group does not comment on internal party matters.
These resignations mean that Hounslow Labour now holds 49 of the 62 seats available, down three from the 2022 local elections. The Conservatives hold eight seats, the Greens one seat, and independents make up the remaining four seats.
Last week it was revealed that former Labour councillor, Cllr Guy Lambert, had joined the Green Party. Cllr Lambert sat as a Labour councillor in Hounslow until January 2025 when he resigned.
He claimed that the selection process deciding which candidates stand in the upcoming elections was “deeply flawed”. He became the first Green Party councillor to sit on Hounslow Council when he joined them after several months as an independent.
Labour councillors all over London have left the party in recent months. In many cases this has been a response to being deselected to contest the next local elections, but others have resigned or defected for other reasons. In Hillingdon, the Labour group has lost five councillor who have resigned or been deselected by the party.
This has meant that the group was forced to pause the candidate selection process, after it was unable to find enough female candidates willing to stand, as per party rules around gender balance. In Brent, eight Labour councillors were told they could not stand in the 2026 elections.
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