Lady, now Dame, Shirley Porter, the Leader of Westminster City Council from 1983 to 1991, notoriously sold off three cemeteries for 15p and devised an illegal plan to socially engineer the borough to ensure it remained 'safe' for the Tory party. In doing so she made hundreds of families homeless and, unforgivably, moved some of them into two council-owned asbestos-ridden tower blocks which were a known health hazard.
The policy she devised, known as 'Building Stable Communities',...
more »Lady, now Dame, Shirley Porter, the Leader of Westminster City Council from 1983 to 1991, notoriously sold off three cemeteries for 15p and devised an illegal plan to socially engineer the borough to ensure it remained 'safe' for the Tory party. In doing so she made hundreds of families homeless and, unforgivably, moved some of them into two council-owned asbestos-ridden tower blocks which were a known health hazard.
The policy she devised, known as 'Building Stable Communities', set out to move potential Labour voters from eight marginal wards and replace them with owner-occupiers more likely to vote Conservative. From its inception 'Building Stable Communities' permeated every department of the Council, drawing ever larger numbers of local government politicians and officers into a secret conspiracy which took the District Auditor years to unravel. The policy succeeded in handing the Conservatives a substantial majority in the 1990 local elections, but the District Auditor found that this benefit to the Tory Party cost the residents of Westminster £48 million. After much wheeling and dealing, Porter, a Tesco heiress, was forced to hand back £12 million. She now lives abroad.
The story of the conspiracy, and the extraordinary collusion of councillors and officers which made it possible, is chronicled in Andrew Hosken's book 'Nothing Like A Dame', published in March 2006. The book manages to be both shocking and highly entertaining. Essential reading. Below are some of the photographs from the book, together with a small selection of related images. High resolution files are available from this archive on registration, or on request by phone or email.
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