Cllr Pamela Fitzpatrick was elected in the Marlborough ward, becoming the first non-Labour or Tory councillor in Harrow since 2014
Since 2018 Harrow Council had been a duopoly, with the Conservatives and Labour dominating every seat in each ward and only the leadership baton being passed back and forth between the two parties.
But for the first time in eight years the borough will not only have representation from a different party – but a new party altogether.
Whilst the local elections earlier this month (May 7) once again returned a Conservative rule in Harrow, with an even larger majority, a third political party managed to take a seat for the first time since the Liberal Democrats in 2014.
Formed in the wake of the 2024 general election – and endorsed by former Labour Leader Jeremy Corbyn – new political party Arise was able to break the duopoly, winning one of the 11 seats it contested across the borough.
The makeup of Harrow Council – 2022 vs 2026 (story continued below)
Perhaps benefitting from Labour’s votes plummeting across London, which was mirrored in Harrow as the party took just 12 seats – half as many as in 2022 – one Arise candidate was able to come out victorious. Sandwiched between two Labour winners – Harrow Labour Leader, Cllr David Perry, and Cllr Varsha Parmar – Cllr Pamela Fitzpatrick got 878 votes and was elected in one of Marlborough ward’s three available seats.
But what is Arise, what does the party stand for, and who is Pamela Fitzpatrick? The Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) spoke to the leader of Harrow’s newest political party to find out.
Who are Arise?
Registered with the Electoral Commission in June 2025, Arise was formed in Harrow by local people who felt “all the established parties had failed our community” and believed that if the change they wanted was going to happen then they needed to do it themselves.
Its official party launch took place at Victoria Hall on August 27 last year, with Jeremy Corbyn MP on the panel at the event. Arise appears to be a local grassroots arm of Your Party – set up by Corbyn – which will “likely fold into” the national party moving forwards.
Its Leader, Cllr Fitzpatrick, told the LDRS that “only people who could demonstrate that they had a track record of activism in the community” were selected as candidates at the local elections as the party didn’t want it to fall foul of “a familiar complaint” from people on the doorstep – that you don’t see politicians until election time rolls around.
Cllr Fitzpatrick claims it is not full of people who “just want to be politicians for the sake of it” but want to improve things for their communities. She added: “Our campaign was one of positivity and inclusivity, focusing on the key issues affecting local people rather than focusing on personalities and personal attacks.”
Despite being less than a year old, Arise did reasonably well in terms of vote share across the five wards it contested. The party was close to taking a second of the three available seats in Marlborough, with fewer than 100 votes in it, and one got more than 1,000 votes in Headstone – around 400 shy of winning a seat.
The party did less well in the three seats it contested in Roxeth and two in Wealdstone North, however, whilst both candidates did well in Wealdstone South – one was just 34 votes away from beating the Labour candidate and taking one of the two available seats. Whilst it was a commendable showing, the only candidate to come out victorious was Cllr Fitzpatrick.
Who is Pamela Fitzpatrick?
Cllr Fitzpatrick was newly elected to the Marlborough ward – an area she has lived in for the past 26 years. Although Arise’s first councillor, she will already be recognisable to many residents in Harrow having served as a Labour councillor between 2014 and 2022.
Cllr Fitzpatrick was expelled from the Labour Party in November 2021 after she was investigated for being a member of Socialist Appeal – the British section of the International Marxist Tendency. She had given an interview to Socialist Appeal in May 2020, over a year before Labour’s National Executive Committee (NEC) had proscribed the organisation. Cllr Fitzpatrick has consistently refuted any allegation that she was a member of Socialist Appeal.
In politics, as well as previously being a councillor for eight years, Cllr Fitzpatrick stood as an Independent for Harrow West in the 2024 General Election – coming third. Outside of politics she was a governor and then chair of governors at a local school, worked jobs in the voluntary sector – including at Child Poverty Action, Family Rights Group, and the National Association of Citizens Advice Bureaux. She is also a trustee of two local charities and was a member of the Social Security Advisory Committee.
In 2008, Cllr Fitzpatrick acted as litigation friend to her mother, who had dementia, in a judicial review challenging the then Conservative council policy to limit social care to only those with substantial care needs. The review was successful and resulted in the council having to restore care packages to all disabled people.
For the past 16 years, she has run a legal advice centre in the borough that she founded – called Harrow Law Centre. It provides free legal advice and representation to local people.
What does Arise stand for?
Arise says it is going to be “the voice for residents” in the council chamber and will “challenge the status quo”. The party points to three specific areas in the borough where it has identified key issues that it will look to challenge the Conservatives on – housing, education, and poverty.
Cllr Fitzpatrick said: “Housing is one of Harrow’s most pressing issues affecting us all. Yet the policies of both Labour and Conservative have largely remained the same over several decades and are exacerbating rather than resolving the housing crisis. Overpriced, poor quality tower blocks dominate the borough, while many stand empty as overseas investments.
“Expensive private rentals and Houses of Multiple Occupation (HMOs) are increasing, and both private landlords and housing associations often leave properties in disrepair with damp and mould.”
Speaking on education, she added: “Harrow politicians boast about the education system in Harrow but we have found that there is an alarming number of children who are excluded from school and it appears that many of those excluded are children with special education needs.
“This often leads to a parent having to give up work to look after a child or it leads to older children being at risk of being groomed by criminal gangs. In addition many children with special education needs struggle to get the right support in place for their child and wait many months for an Education Health and Care Plan for their child.”
Addressing poverty, she said: “It should be clear to anyone living in Harrow that there is significant poverty in the borough. Low pay, high housing costs and council tax are some of the key drivers of poverty and Harrow fares badly in all three. Trust for London Research shows that almost a quarter of workers in Harrow receive pay at less than the London Living Wage.
“Harrow has one of the lowest levels of council housing of any borough, approximately 5,000 homes in total. So people on low incomes are forced into the private sector which is expensive and often of poor quality. Our council tax is one of the highest in London and our council tax support scheme is one of the meanest.”
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