# Claire-Louise Leyland

Claire-Louise Vaculik (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. She moved to London in 1998 to study further at Goldsmiths and Middlesex University.

## Career

Leyland is an art therapist by profession, and is the chair of the British Association of Art Therapists, the British professional body for art therapists. She edited the book Integrative Arts Psychotherapy.
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, and criticising Camden Council for spending money on publicising the fact it had no money.
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. It was the party's sixth-lowest vote share at that election.
Leyland voted to remain in the 2016 EU referendum. She was selected for Hampstead and Kilburn at the 2017 general election, beating Henry Newman and Kemi Badenoch, and her candidacy in the strongly anti-Brexit constituency was dubbed 'Clash of the Remainers'. She was criticised for downplaying being a Conservative and instead being promoted as "Theresa May's candidate". 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 | 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 | Turnout | Turnout | 5,454 | 62.3 | +24.0 |
| | Conservative gain from Liberal Democrats | Conservative gain from Liberal Democrats | Swing | | |
| | Conservative gain from Liberal Democrats | Conservative gain from Liberal Democrats | Swing | | |
| | Liberal Democrats hold | Liberal Democrats hold | Swing | | |
2014 Camden local election - Belsize ward (3 seats) :
| Party | 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 | Turnout | Turnout | 9,257 | 38.3 | −24.0 |
| | Conservative hold | Conservative hold | Swing | | |
| | Conservative hold | Conservative hold | Swing | | |
| | Conservative gain from Liberal Democrats | Conservative gain from Liberal Democrats | Swing | | |
General election 2015: West Tyrone :
| Party | 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 |
| | UUP | 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 | Majority | Majority | 10,060 | 26.0 | ―2.6 |
| Turnout | Turnout | Turnout | 38,654 | 60.5 | ―0.5 |
| Registered electors | Registered electors | Registered electors | 63,856 | | |
| | Sinn Féin hold | Sinn Féin hold | Swing | ―1.3 | |
General election 2017: Hampstead and Kilburn :
| Party | Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% |
| | Labour | Tulip Siddiq | 34,464 | 59.0 | 14.6 |
| | Conservative | Claire-Louise Leyland | 18,904 | 32.4 | 9.9 |
| | Liberal Democrats | Kirsty Allan | 4,100 | 7.0 | 1.4 |
| | Green | John Mansook | 742 | 1.3 | 3.1 |
| | Independent | Hugh Easterbrook | 136 | 0.2 | New |
| | Independent | Rainbow George Weiss | 61 | 0.1 | New |
| Majority | Majority | Majority | 15,560 | 26.6 | 24.5 |
| Turnout | Turnout | Turnout | 58,407 | 70.4 | 3.1 |
| Registered electors | Registered electors | Registered electors | 82,957 | | |
| | Labour hold | Labour hold | Swing | 12.3 | |