Candidates have been revealed for two Barnet Council by-elections.

Barnet Council is currently made up of 36 Conservative councillors, 23 Labour members and two Liberal Democrats, with two vacant positions.

In East Barnet, five candidates are vying to succeed Labour’s Jo Cooper, who stepped down from her role as ward councillor in March because of her work commitments in the NHS.

Local elections were postponed following the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, but with lockdown restrictions gradually being lifted, voters will head to the polls on Thursday 6th May to take part in by-elections, alongside the twin City Hall polls for the London Assembly and Mayor of London.

The candidates for the East Barnet by-election are Gabrielle Bailey, for the Green Party; Sean Hooker, for the Liberal Democrats; Linda Lusingu, for the Labour Party; Alex Merola of For Britain Movement; and Nicole Richer for the Conservative Party.

The 2018 local elections were a close-run contest in East Barnet, with Cllr Cooper only 144 votes ahead of the nearest Conservative candidate.

In Edgware, voters will pick a successor to long-serving Tory councillor Brian Gordon, who died in September last year. The candidates are Andrea Bilbow, of the Labour Party; Nick Mearing-Smith, from the Conservative Party; Sam Murray, of the Green Party; and Roger Tichborne, of the Liberal Democrats.

The Tories won a sizeable majority in Edgware at the local elections in 2018, with Cllr Gordon more than 2,000 votes ahead of the top-polling Labour candidate.

More information about the upcoming elections and the different methods available to vote, including registering for a postal vote, is available at barnet.gov.uk/elections.