Camden London Borough Council

Camden Council was criticised for "excessive spending" after £11,000 of public funds was spent on a private party to welcome the new mayor for 2019/20 Cllr. Maryam Eslamdoust. After a Freedom of Information request, local newspaper Ham and High reported on 24 June 2019 that there had been 220 invited guests with £4,400 spent on food; £600 on drinks [up from £148 for drinks at the previous year's equivalent event]; £2,000 on decor design; £1,000 on lighting and staff; and £1,233 on hiring some space at a Camden Council occupied building. The newspaper quoted criticisms of the costs by “councillors of all political parties ... including some inside the ruling Labour group”. One councillor reportedly said "It looked like no expense had been spared" and another that “clearly socialism starts at home and socialists have very expensive tastes.”[8]

Two days after that article was published, the Ham and High reported the new mayor had sent a "nearly 600 word email" to 40 members of the council's Labour group, saying that they had "disrespected" her by their strength of criticism of the council's spending. The newspaper reported Cllr Eslamdoust had also criticised her colleagues for briefing "multiple false stories", for "spreading nasty rumours" about her and for "turning up in sloppy clothing" to her welcome party.[9]

The first Ham & High article (on 24 June 2019) was initially accompanied by a cartoon by a Camden resident and regular newspaper contributor, depicting Cllr. Eslamdoust and her husband, Labour councillor Thomas Gardiner, holding glasses at a party, with champagne corks popping around them, and a guest at the party saying "We've always said we're anti-austerity and you can't get more anti-austerity than this". Following this, Cllr. Eslamdoust, backed by the Labour party, wrote to the newspaper and accused it of being “offensive, Islamophobic, misogynist and sexist” because, being pregnant and a Muslim, she would not drink alcohol.  The newspaper said it had been "ignorant" and printed an apology. Private Eye magazine commented her reaction seemed 'extreme' as the focus of the cartoon had been spending by a Labour-led council, and it had emailed Cllr. Eslamdoust to ask whether she was a practising Muslim and if she ever drank alcohol, to which she didn't reply.[10] In September 2019, Eslamdoust tweeted a 30 second video of a nightclub showing many men and women dancing closely together, a number of whom holding what appears to be pint glasses of beer and the message: “Our CLP [Constituency Labour Party] chair is better than yours…. Katherine B.[ligh] out at a club sometime after 2am.  #Lab19”.[11] In July 2020, Eslamdoust 'loved' a tweet of her drinking what appears to be a glass of wine.[12]