Government Praises Diversity of Islington Councillors

2.58.43pm UTC (GMT +0000) Wed 1st Nov 2006

Islington Lib Dem Council Group

The diversity of Islington's Liberal Democrat Councillors, and their proactive approach to getting councillors from all backgrounds, has been praised in the Government white paper on Local Government, published last week.

The White Paper says on page 53:

"In Islington the local Liberal Democrats adopted a deliberate policy of 'talent spotting' community activists from a range of backgrounds and encouraged them to stand for election. Rather than viewing each ward selection separately the Liberal Democrats viewed all local selections as building part of a wider team, in order to gain an effective and representative group of councillors."

Councillor Jyoti Vaja, Islington's first Asian Mayor, commented:

"It's really great to have our hard work to get a more diverse and representative range of Councillors for Islington recognised in such an important Government document. We have councillors that represent all parts of our local community, and we believe this is vital to create a listening council that understands local people's needs. The White Paper was looking for examples of good practise for recruiting people that might not usually think to stand for their local council, and I hope our example inspires others to stand as well."

Islington's group of Liberal Democrats includes councillors aged 24 to 80, from a variety of ethnic backgrounds, several out gay councillors, and 2/3rds of the group are women.