Natalie Campbell is angry. “Bloody pissed off,” in fact. She’s taken out a £25,000 loan in a bid to become Mayor of London, but is struggling to get her message across to Londoners. She wasn’t invited to ITV London’s prime-time hustings event last week. Nor to BBC London’s, nor LBC’s, nor a transport hustings, nor a prominent business event which ended up being cancelled because neither Tory Susan Hall or Sadiq Khan would appear.
“Maybe I was naïve,” she says. “Genuinely I believed I would be invited to hustings. I was not even told about the ITV debate. Respect should be shown to all the candidates who have done the work to get on the ballot [paper]. They should at least be given a reason why you are not invited.”
London mayoral candidates have to pay a £10,000 deposit — which is returned if they win at least five per cent of the votes — and gather the signatures of 10 registered voters from each of the capital’s 33 boroughs.
Thirteen people will contest the mayoral elections on May 2. But YouTuber Niko Omilana and actor-turned-anti-woke campaigner Laurence Fox — who came fifth and sixth in 2021 — both fell foul of the rules and had their applications rejected.
Ms Campbell, 40, a “social entrepreneur”, joint chief executive of environmental drinks firm Belu Water and University of Westminster chancellor, also nearly fell at the final hurdle.
Having submitted her application early, she was warned by London Elects, the organisation that runs the election, that two of her signatories were not registered voters. Student interns were dispatched to Heathrow and Camden in the final weekend before the deadline to find more backers.
“It took three weeks to get the 330 signatures,” she said. “We were knocking on doors, we were standing in streets. This process nearly killed me. It was bloody hard. There were points when I thought: ‘I don’t know if I can do this.’ It felt like the goalposts were moving.”
She borrowed £25,000 at “7.9 per cent APR” to fund her campaign. This included £10,000 for the deposit to stand, £10,000 to be included in the election brochure sent to all London households and £5,000 to pay her interns the London living wage.
After going to such expense, she is infuriated that Mr Khan, Tory candidate Ms Hall and Lib-Dem Rob Blackie have failed to attend several hustings. “That they can’t be arsed to turn up at a hustings, I’m pissed off. That is basically the headline: I am bloody pissed off.”
We chat over coffee in a quiet corner of Langan’s brasserie. Ms Campbell’s campaign promises “no bullshit” — abbreviated to “zero B.S.” on her official election address. She doesn’t hold back in person. “I don’t want to sound like an arse, but I am interesting,” she says. “How many black women do you meet with tattoos on their hands, that are saying it like it is, that have put their own money in their pocket, that have the CV that I have? I released my manifesto weeks ago but what I’m hearing back is: that’s still not good enough.
“But we are letting people with below average contribution, that have not done any work, that literally have brought no joy into this, to have a platform?” Can she win? Yes, if she hits her target of winning the votes of 1.5 million Londoners. Some 3.9 million voters didn’t take part in the last mayoral election.
Even for an entrepreneur, it feels a risky investment. “I believe in myself,” she says. “I think London deserves it. I’m doing this for more than just me. This isn’t about me making myself famous.” What would success look like? “1.5 million [votes].” It’s a near-impossible task, but she appears undaunted. I ask again. “1.5 million. You are not going to get a different answer to 1.5 million.” Asked what she would do if she does not become Mayor on May 2, she replies: “I don’t understand the question.”
She regards ITV London’s decision to exclude her from its hustings as “a snub” and has written to complain. Ofcom rules only require broadcasters to give “due weight” to independent candidates, based on past or current support. Pollsters estimate her support to be less than two per cent. “Could I take them to court and win? Probably not. Can I highlight the fact that if I was a celebrity with no track record in politics and I was running, they would probably create a fifth slot? Yes.”
A celebrity for Mayor of London? Now there’s a thought. She claims Lib-Dem grandees made clear to her that unless they bagged a candidate such as Gary Lineker, they wouldn’t waste too much effort trying to win City Hall.
She briefly became a Lib-Dem member as she explored her options. “If you tell me the ideal of what you are looking for is Gary Lineker, I’m going to make some assumptions. White, male…” Did Lib-Dem high command actually mention Lineker’s name to her? “Yes.”
Then she tried to become the Tory mayoral candidate, but failed to make it on to the shortlist.
She “didn’t take the decision lightly” to sign-up as a Tory member. “There are lots of people in the black community who believe I’m the devil incarnate,” she said. “They don’t believe the two can be compatible.”
She quit the Tories after four months. “I’m not a Tory,” she admits. “The final question at the selection panel was: ‘Did you only become a Conservative because you wanted to win and the Lib-Dems didn’t?’”
A Tory official called her with the decision. “You did really well,” she was told. “There were people in the room that really gravitated towards you. But it’s clear you are not one of us.” Ms Campbell says she was driven to run for mayor by “rage and frustration” at the case of Child Q, the east London schoolgirl who, aged 15, was strip-searched by police at school while on her period.
Some 9,000 children have been strip-searched, she says. “People have fallen into a pattern that all politicians look and sound the same. To me, that is sad. The political class should look like and represent the whole of the UK.”
What, though, of the previous Tory mayoral candidate, Shaun Bailey, a black man from an impoverished background in north Kensington. He didn’t beat Mr Khan in 2021 but did better than many expected. Didn’t he break the mould?
“Shaun’s a funny fish,” she said. “I think his campaign fell into the norm of a political campaign.”
And what of Susan Hall, the Right-winger whose views may not chime with liberal London? “They [the Tories] got who they deserved.” What does she mean? “She represents who they are as a party.”
They [the Tories] got who they deserved. Susan Hall represents who they are as a party
Ms Campbell owns a home in Hove but rents a “build-to-rent” flat in a new development next to Wembley stadium. The redevelopment is a remarkable transformation on the Wembley she knew in her childhood. “They have done it without displacing the community.”
She denies she became a mayoral candidate as a publicity stunt. Unless she wins five per cent of the vote, she will lose her deposit. “My profile was high in the spaces I am in before I started this. I have a great job. I have a great life. I’m running to prove [a] that you can run, [b] that you can win and [C] that candidates can’t take a lazy, complacent approach to campaigning.”
She wanted to be a chief executive at 15. “I have never taken a drug,” she says, adding in an apparent joke: “But that is because I can’t swallow tablets. I have dated guys that are now, or have been, in jail. Most of the boys I went to school with ended up going to jail at some point. That is the reality of what it’s like growing up working class in London now. I’m totally working class.”
Both of her grandmothers, immigrants from Jamaica, were foster carers and worked as cleaners at Northwick Park Hospital. Her grandfather had a car garage. Her father was an electrician. “My life is middle class for sure. If I had children, the way they would grow up would be very different to the way I grew up.”
With her CV, hasn’t she applied for the wrong job? Shouldn’t she be on The Apprentice? “Oh God, no. Such a terrible programme. It’s not a fair representation of what businesses are run at all.”
She spent two years at the Royal Foundation, the charity jointly headed by William, Kate, Harry and Meghan before the “fab four” fell out. She helped Harry and Meghan set up their own charity, Sussex Royal. She worked on the cookbook Meghan published to raise funds for victims of the Grenfell fire.
“That was really personal for me. I was there standing under Grenfell as it was burning. My brother was a teacher at the school.”
She makes no attempt to capitalise on her work with the royals to boost her mayoral bid. “People underestimate just how hard they work,” she says of the young royals. “Prince William doesn’t get the love, for me, that he deserves.
I like Sadiq but I’m disappointed by his leadership
“The fact that he has said we can end homelessness, and he is putting time, energy and financial resources behind piloting models to make it happen — you wouldn’t have had Sadiq saying he is going to end rough sleeping if lots of people hadn’t made it an issue.”
What if Mr Khan wins a third term and offers her a job? She previously served on two City Hall quangos. “I like Sadiq but I’m disappointed by his leadership,” she says.
“The question I would have to ask myself is: If you want to deliver change, do you go and sit next to someone you are deeply frustrated by and help them to be better, or do you try to deliver change in a different way? I don’t have an answer yet.
“But it’s an understatement to say I’m furious with Sadiq. All of the things he could have done that he hasn’t done. I don’t think he wants the [Mayor’s] job. I think he is waiting for the next gig.”
