Councillor's defection boosts Tory ethnic drive

David Cameron's bid to win over London's ethnic communities scored another success today when a Labour councillor defected to become the first black Tory on Enfield council.

Denise Headley will cross the floor after seven years as a Labour councillor, boosting the Tory majority on the council from three to five.

Ms Headley, 38, a single mother of eight-year-old twins, said she had become disillusioned with Labour's "failure" to speak up for the "ethnic majority" of non-white people and had been attracted by Mr Cameron's more inclusive approach.

She rose to prominence locally for her forthright views on teenage knife crime, race and inequality but was deselected last month by Labour, apparently after a row over the number of black council candidates being put forward by Labour.

Her decision to join the Tories has been seen as a coup by the party's high command, with the move being rubber-stamped by Conservative party chairman Eric Pickles. Ms Headley told the Standard: "In a sense I'm quite pleased to be the first [black Tory councillor in Enfield]. I hope to be the first of many. The assumption that Labour is the only place you can articulate the politics of ethnic communities is a mistake. They have for many years taken advantage of that but have delivered so little for the black community. One in four black men are on the DNA database. That to me is a huge travesty.

"There is always going to be a question of whether I'm doing this as a political opportunist. But anyone who knows me knows I have been an advocate for equal opportunities and young citizens since I stepped into politics."

Jeff Rodin, the Labour opposition leader on Enfield, said: "The fact Denise will be the first black Conservative councillor in Enfield is itself an indictment of the Conservatives' failure to represent the spread of communities that live in the borough."