24 Apr 2025
A mother and daughter are going head-to-head in next week’s county council elections after standing for different parties in the same division.
Former St Albans Mayor, Frances Leonard, is standing for the Conservatives in the Marshalswick and Colney Heath Division, but campaigning against her for the Green Party is her daughter Sally.
Sally explained why she decided to stand for the Greens in this coming election as opposed to following in her mother’s footsteps.
“Environmental and ethical issues have always been important to me. I’m a jeweller who specialises in sustainable sourcing and making, so it has been a big part of my personal and professional life for decades.
“I’ve been a member of the Green Party for many years; I feel they best represent my views as an individual and I’m happy to support them. I respect my mother’s viewpoint, even if I disagree with it; we were taught to be politically engaged and grew up around local council politics, so it’s only natural I got stuck in – just for a different party!”
Frances added: “Over the years we have learned that politics is something we just don’t agree on, Sally thinks I’m wrong about almost everything whereas I know I’m right. ”However, I like to think that Sally’s love of the environment does, in some part, come from me because caring for our natural environment is something close to my heart and we both really enjoy gardening, Sally is probably even more hands on than I am in her garden but worked on environmental projects with Sandridge Parish over many years.”
But surely running for different parties has provoked a lot of political debate whenever they’re together?
Sally said: “Haha! Well, we have learned that politics is best left outside the family gatherings! It’s tricky to navigate when you have fundamental differences in views, so we concentrate on family time, rather than political debate. I do think there’s definitely a generational aspect to our differences, I think younger people want to see a change in the status quo – which is apparent when the whole family gets together and the younger generation is a lot more left-leaning.”
So the campaign is a lot more amicable than you’d think? “I’m sure we probably see eye to eye on quite a few things, we both want what’s best for our communities,” said Frances.
Sally agreed: “I’ve learned a lot from my mother over the years. She’s a good councillor and works hard – it’s just a difference in policy at the end of the day!”
So are there any major issues locally which they disagree on?
“This is going to sound really pathetic but we have learned that, for the sake of family harmony, it’s best not to get into anything vaguely political.
“From chatting to friends who have children of similar ages, this is a very familiar situation so we just find other things to talk about. We do spend quite a lot of time together as a family and politics always takes a back seat.”
Sally added: “Not really – we just both want the best for our community and we’ve learned the hard way to leave politics at the door with the coats when we hang out as a family.”
