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Conservative politician and leader of the party representing Hampstead Town. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Oliver Cooper (born 1987)[1] is an English Conservative politician and a prominent party activist.[2] He was the leader of the party on Camden London Borough Council representing Hampstead Town and is now a Conservative councillor and leader of the opposition on Three Rivers District Council in Hertfordshire.[3]
Oliver Cooper | |
---|---|
Leader of the Opposition on Three Rivers Council | |
In office 2023 – Present day | |
Preceded by | Ciarán Reed |
Leader of the Opposition on Camden Council | |
In office 2018–2022 | |
Preceded by | Gio Spinella |
Succeeded by | Tom Simon |
Camden councillor for Hampstead Town | |
In office 2015–2022 | |
Preceded by | Simon Marcus |
Succeeded by | Adrian Cohen |
Personal details | |
Born | 1987 (age 36–37) |
Political party | Conservative |
Alma mater | University College London |
Cooper attended Dr Challoner's Grammar School and University College London. He is a lawyer and a former journalist.[4]
He was elected to represent Hampstead Town ward on Camden Council in 2015. Despite Hampstead voting 80% for "Remain" in the Brexit referendum in 2016,[5] he voted for "Leave".[6][7][8]
He became the Leader of the Opposition after the 2018 elections. Ahead of the 2022 Camden Borough elections, Cooper chose to move from his 'safe' Conservative ward to the Conservative-Liberal Democrat split ward of Belsize to try to increase his party's number of seats.[9] He increased his party's share of the vote and came first among the Conservative candidates, but lost to the Lib Dems, ending his career in local government.[10] Local newspapers said that he "almost certainly" would have held his Hampstead seat if he had not chosen to move to Belsize.[11]
After his defeat, Cooper became the chairman of the Watford Conservatives.[12] He was previously the deputy chairperson of the Hampstead and Kilburn Conservatives.[13] He was elected as a councillor in Hertfordshire in 2023 despite significant Conservative losses nationally.[14] He was immediately elected the group leader on the council.[15] In 2024 the Lib Dems lost their overall Majority on the council with the council going into No Overall Control.[16]
Cooper was "long-listed" for the Conservative Parliamentary selection in Cities of London and Westminster[17] and "short-listed" in Hemel Hempstead,[18] coming second.[19]
He has appeared in the national news for campaigning to hire more police,[20] highlighting some Labour members disrupting a minute's silence for Tessa Jowell,[21] securing an official rebuke of Sadiq Khan for allegedly misusing crime statistics in 2018,[22] attacking the Revolutionary Communist Group speaking in Camden Council,[23] intervening and stopping Islamophobic violence on the London Underground in September 2019[24] and helping get rid of anti-Semitic graffiti in his area in December 2019.[25][26][27][28][29] In 2022, The Times and The Daily Telegraph reported his criticism of censoring or removing statues in Camden of Mahatma Gandhi, Virginia Woolf, and other figures.[30][31] He wrote in The Telegraph in 2015, unsuccessfully asking Conservatives not to vote for Jeremy Corbyn as Labour leader,[32] which left-wing commentator Owen Jones later called a 'prophetic warning'.[33]
Cooper was the national chairman of the Conservative youth organisation Conservative Future from 2013 to 2014. The Times reported that the organisation was "working really really well"[34] until he was a victim of Mark Clarke in the nationally reported "Tatler Tory" bullying scandal.[35] Cooper stood down after Clarke threatened to spread false rumours about him if he stood for re-election leading to Clarke replacing him with Clarke's lover.[36][37] He had previously relaunched the European Young Conservatives.[38]
As leader of the Conservative Group of Camden Council, Cooper supported the development of the Belsize Village Streatery in the summer of 2020 as a measure to mitigate the negative impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on the local economy[39] and help continue the revitalisation of the community started by the Belsize Village Business Association in October 2018.[40][41] Cooper coordinated the release of £55,911 in community infrastructure levy (CIL) funds (£18,637 from each ward of Belsize, Frognal and Fitzjohns and Hampstead Town) to fund the Belsize Village Streatery.[42] As the first scheme of its kind after the end of Lockdown 1 of COVID-19 restrictions in the UK, the Belsize Village Streatery received a ministerial visit on July 30, 2020 by then-Secretary of State Robert Jenrick, whose visit was hosted by Cooper.[43]
According to the Belsize Village Business Association, the Belsize Village Streatery "helped save several businesses and over 100 local jobs."[40] Data from Camden Council showed that amidst the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, spending in Belsize Village rose 111.6%[44] year-on-year to August-Oct 2020 against an overall difficult economic backdrop. A 14-day consultation held by Camden Council in the summer of 2021 found that 91.5% of residents and businesses supported extending the Belsize Village Streatery.[45] On 10 February 2022, Cooper spoke in favour of making the Belsize Village Streatery permanent at the Camden Council Licensing Committee; the permanence of the scheme was approved at the meeting. At the licensing committee, Cooper said, "The revitalisation of Belsize Village has been nothing short of a miracle in the last two years."[46]
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Conservative | Oliver Cooper | 2,693 | 50.9 | ![]() | |
Labour | Maddy Raman | 1,381 | 26.1 | ![]() | |
Green | Sophie Dix | 597 | 11.3 | ![]() | |
Liberal Democrats | Yannick Bultingaire | 543 | 10.3 | ![]() | |
Independent | Nigel Rumble | 73 | 1.4 | N/A | |
Majority | 1,312 | 24.8 | |||
Turnout | 5,287 | 67 | |||
Conservative hold | Swing |
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Conservative | Stephen Stark* | 1,522 | 14.6% | ![]() | |
Conservative | Oliver Cooper* | 1,455 | 14.0% | ![]() | |
Conservative | Maria Higson | 1,400 | 13.6% | ![]() | |
Liberal Democrats | Linda Chung | 1,247 | 12.0% | ![]() | |
Labour | Sue Cullinan | 898 | 8.6% | ![]() | |
Liberal Democrats | Andrew Haslam Jones | 879 | 8.5% | ![]() | |
Liberal Democrats | Will Coles | 826 | 7.9% | ![]() | |
Labour | Sunny Mandich | 811 | 7.8% | ![]() | |
Labour | James Slater | 799 | 7.7% | ![]() | |
Green | Richard Dunham Bourne | 243 | 2.3% | ![]() | |
Green | Michael Wulff Pawlyn | 175 | 1.7% | ![]() | |
Green | Ramsay Short | 135 | 1.3% | ![]() | |
Majority | 153 | 1.5% | ![]() | ||
Turnout | 10,390 | 46.5% | ![]() | ||
Conservative hold | Swing | ||||
Conservative hold | Swing | ||||
Conservative hold | Swing |
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Liberal Democrats | Tom Simon* | 1,494 | 47.4% | ![]() | |
Liberal Democrats | Judy Dixey | 1,445 | 45.7% | ![]() | |
Liberal Democrats | Matthew Kirk | 1,317 | 41.7% | ![]() | |
Conservative | Oliver Cooper† | 1,124 | 35.6% | ![]() | |
Conservative | Steve Adams* | 1,106 | 35.0% | ![]() | |
Conservative | Aarti Joshi | 953 | 30.2% | ![]() | |
Labour | Issy Waite | 705 | 22.3% | ![]() | |
Labour | Shaheen Ahmed Chowdhury | 692 | 21.9% | ![]() | |
Labour | Peter Ptashko | 644 | 20.4% | ![]() | |
Turnout | 38.4 | ||||
Liberal Democrats win (new seat) | |||||
Liberal Democrats win (new seat) | |||||
Liberal Democrats win (new seat) |
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Conservative | Oliver Cooper | 1,081 | 58.8 | ![]() | |
Liberal Democrats | Frank Mahon-Daly | 517 | 28.1 | ![]() | |
Green | Peter Loader | 130 | 7.1 | ![]() | |
Labour | Margaret Gallagher | 111 | 6.0 | ![]() | |
Majority | 564 | 30.7 | +7.6 | ||
Turnout | 1,479 | 26.0 | –2.9 | ||
Registered electors | 5,681 | ||||
Conservative hold | Swing | ![]() |
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