Former Hounslow Cabinet member helps George Galloway to victory and slams Council’s budget

Former Hounslow councillor and Cabinet member Theo Dennison launches his career as a political consultant with George Galloway’s by election campaign

Theo Dennison

Theo Dennison is a well known figure in west London. As a former councillor and Cabinet member for finance in Hounslow he was the brains behind many of the Council’s annual budgets. When he parted company with the local Labour party and then lost his council seat as an Independent, he relaunched his career as a political consultant.

His most recent client? George Galloway. A landslide win, polling 12,335 votes, nearly 6,000 more than any other candidate, for a candidate not from one of the major parties and not fighting the by-election on an issue that directly affected constituents’ lives is not bad to have on your CV.

George Galloway was elected as MP for Rochdale on Friday (1 March). The campaign was centred on the war in Gaza and Galloway’s winning speech began with him saying; “Keir Starmer, this is for Gaza.”

He also said: “You will pay a high price for the role that you have played in enabling, encouraging and covering for the catastrophe presently going on in occupied Gaza, in the Gaza Strip.”

When Theo talked to The Chiswick Calendar he was at pains to point out that he had not joined George Galloway’s Workers Party of Britain. He explained he had become a Political Communications Consultant and he was “working for a client.

“The client was George Galloway’s campaign. To be clear I have had a number of political clients and will continue to do so across the political spectrum.

“This campaign was the latest of several campaigns I have been and will be a part of.”

Theo was the Cabinet Member for Finance at Hounslow Council but resigned from the Council and the Labour Party in an astonishing speech that attacked then leader, Steve Curran for whom he was a councillor in Syon and Brentford Lock. He stood in 2022 as an independent in the same ward but was beaten by Katherine Dunne, Dan Bowring and Balraj Sarai, all of the Labour Party.

Image above: Theo Dennison at a Borough Council Meeting

This year’s budget settlement by Hounslow Council is “quite worrying” says the former Cabinet Member for Finance

We moved on to the new Council budget set by LB Hounslow for 2024-25. The Council has agreed the maximum increase in Council Tax and a big increase in Council rents. Theo described the budget as “quite worrying for a number of reasons.”

“There is a significant incapacity in the administration to balance the budget. It has been demonstrated in the struggles they have had since November” he said.

“Another reason is the significant sums they have calculated that will help for future budgets. Particularly transport related income. This impacts the likes of me as a resident in terms of what they’re planning for people who own cars, including parking charges and LTN’s (Low Traffic Neighbourhoods).

“The other factor is the wobbles that are identifiable in the budget. The need for them to go back on savings they haven’t already made to balance the budget. This suggests that millions of pounds that should’ve already been saved have not been saved.

“This places the council in some degree of jeopardy.”

He also said: “It would seem they’re passing on as many costs as they can to the taxpayer. Unless you work on the budget throughout the year, then you are forced to increase costs by as much as you can.

“This then demonstrates a complete inability to be flexible, because if you’re maxing out your credit card every year, you’re not in a position to manage your finances in a rational way.

“You will be forced to do things whether they’re right or not.

“My opinion is Council Tax should only ever be raised when you have to raise it, not as a matter of practise. This administration is raising it by the maximum amount as a matter of practise. There is absolutely no indication that they will change from that practise for the rest of their term.”

READ ALSO: Hounslow Council approves “ambitious” budget for 2024/25

The impact on the increase in council renting

In January it was announced that Hounslow Council was proposing a significant 7.7% increase in social housing rents starting from April, the maximum allowable hike according to government regulations.

READ ALSO: Hounslow Council opt for maximum social rent increase from April

When we asked Theo about the rents increasing he said:

“It’s obvious that residents in council accommodation are usually in some degree of financial restraint, otherwise they wouldn’t be in council accommodation. This doesn’t make their household budgeting easy and when their rents are increasing by a significant amount, it puts them in a difficult place where other residents who own their home wouldn’t be under.”

“The stresses the council are under are simply being passed onto residents rather than being dealt with by the council.”

When asked if he would be interested in going back into local politics, Theo said:

“I’ve always had an interest in politics. I’m not intending to step away from politics overall and have plenty of things to do. Politics will always be a part of this.” He remains a local resident and has been since 1998.