Cllr Ranjit Gill not standing in Chiswick next elections

Cllr Ranjit Gill at the Borough Council meeting in May where he crossed the floor to join Labour

“It wasn’t my decision not to stand in Chiswick Gunnersbury”

Cllr Ranjit Gill, who represents Chiswick Gunnersbury ward on Hounslow Council, will not be standing as a candidate in Chiswick in next May’s local elections.

Cllr Gill was elected first in 2018 and will have served eight years as a councillor by the time the next elections take place. He was elected twice as a Conservative, but dramatically ‘crossed the floor’ to join Labour at a borough council meeting earlier this year, much to his colleagues’ shock and surprise.

READ ALSO: Chiswick Conservative councillor Ranjit Gill crosses to Labour

“It wasn’t my decision not to stand in Chiswick Gunnersbury” Ranjit told The Chiswick Calendar. “It was the NEC’s”.

The Labour Party’s National Executive Committee has decided where Labour candidates will stand in Hounslow. Ranjit will be standing in Osterley & Spring Grove ward. It is nearer to where he lives in Hounslow Heath, and he knows the area well because he has lived in Osterley previously.

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I asked Ranjit whether he was sad not to be representing Chiswick any longer.

“Yes”, he told The Chiswick Calendar. “I am sad. I like the ward, and I enjoy the markets – I am a great supporter of the Sunday markets, I was there on Sunday”.

When the Chiswick Flower Market first started during the Pandemic and needed volunteer marshals to organise the flow of the crowd, Ranjit was a regular volunteer, along with his fellow ward councillor Ron Mushiso.

He has publicly defended the markets, arguing against the opposition of his other ward colleague Joanna Biddolph, most recently at Licencing Panel hearing at which the Antiques & Vintage market had to renew their licence.

READ ALSO: Chiswick Antiques & Vintage market licence renewed with more time to clear up

Public meetings on policing

I asked what the most frequently recurring subject was in his postbag as a councillor for Chiswick Gunnersbury, and he told me the subject which came up most often was crime.

“The thing I’m proudest of is organising three public meetings with the police. We had about 200 people come to each after there were reports of children being robbed on their way to Rocks Lane [sports centre].

“I also organised supplementary meetings. We had one at Gunnersbury Triangle to which the Commissioner came”.

Cllr Gill with Conservative colleagues Ron Mushiso and Joanna Biddolph, campaigning for election in May 2018

As the Conservative Group’s spokesperson on crime, he managed to get a CCTV camera placed in Homefields ward and also persuaded the developer of the old Chiswick Police station site to offer the Metropolitan Police a room to store their equipment and use as a base in Chiswick when the new building is constructed.

That was something else he fell out with his ward colleague Joanna Biddolph over, as she opposed the plans for the development.

READ ALSO: Police offered a base in the old police station in Chiswick

READ ALSO: Old police station development in Chiswick approved by Hounslow Council’s Planning Committee

Ranjit also campaigned for the lighting in Chiswick Gunnersbury ward to be increased after the brightness was turned down as a cost saving, he told me.

“The Council admitted they needed another ten lamp posts, as they were spaced quite far apart. I selected ten places where the lighting should be increased and now they have told me they will be increasing lighting in the whole area”.

Another campaign he chalks up as a success was to get no parking on Sundays for the residents of Linden Gardens.

Ranjit with Ollie Saunders, Clare Balding, Alice Arnold and Nicki Chapman at the opening of the Rainbow Crossing

The Rainbow Crossing

He is pleased to have had a hand in organising the ‘rainbow crossing’ in the centre of Chiswick High Road, along with Chiswick Flower Market director Ollie Saunders and Aubrey Crawley.

READ ALSO: Famous faces join opening of ‘Rainbow Junction’ on Chiswick High Rd

“It was a success. There are lots of LGBT people living in Chiswick and it’s good to celebrate the existence of the pink pound. It gave people a happy feeling – exuberance”.

Changing the boundaries

Ranjit also put together the Conservatives’ position on the reorganisation of the ward boundaries, working with Joanna Biddolph.

It looked as if Chiswick would lose a councillor until the Conservative Group submitted their proposals to the Boundaries Commission, Ranjit told me, which included annexing a bit of Brentford to become Chiswick Gunnersbury ward.

The Boundaries Commission went with their proposals, he said, rather than the Council’s.

Changing party

I asked why he had decided to change party.

“I was unhappy with the way things were being done. There were personal issues, which I don’t want to discuss – people who were against me. I made my opinion known at the time of the AGM, but they didn’t listen”.

I asked what the reaction had been from colleagues and constituents.

“At the Friends of Turnham Green event not long after, many people came up to me and said I’d done the right thing. My Conservative colleagues were upset and annoyed, but we are still friends – I still talk to John [Todd] and Jack [Emsley] and Gerald [McGregor].

He didn’t mention his ward colleagues amongst those who are still friends.

“Joanna doesn’t speak to me any more.”

“Labour have been very welcoming and supportive”.

At the time he changed party Cllr Ron Mushiso gave an interview with John Dale, editor of Brentford Today, in which he is reported to have said Ranjit defected to Labour because he was likely to be deselected by the Conservatives prior to the 2026 elections:

“As reselection loomed, Cllr Gill faced a barren path. Years of minimal contributions and poor visibility had caught up with him.

“Within our Conservative group he often behaved like a political pilot fish, coasting in others’ slipstreams rather than charting his own direction. When scrutiny mounted, he followed his usual instinct: evade, deflect, and disappear into safer waters”.

Ranjit told The Chiswick Calendar:

“I don’t seek publicity, but I get on with the job.

“It’s been a privilege and honour to serve the residents of Chiswick Gunnersbury and I shall still be visiting Chiswick and the markets . I have made some really good friends and met quite a few celebrities.

“I look forward to the opportunity to serve the residents of Osterley and Spring Grove.

“Of course I shall still be one of the three Councillors of Chiswick Gunnersbury till the next elections in May”.

Ranjit at the Chiswick Flower Market on Sunday, at ‘Ginkgo Corner’ where the spring bulbs are going in. He supported the application for Council money for the project, unlike his ward colleagues who expressed concerns about the loss of a parking space to achieve the refurbishment.

Read more stories on The Chiswick Calendar