Former councillor Philip Thompson back from the US

Published: 10 June, 2010
by RICHARD OSLEY

A COUNCILLOR who was forced to step down after moving to the US without telling his party’s leadership is back in London.

The New Journal has learned that Philip Thompson left a course at the University of Arizona in Tucson without completing it.

He said yesterday (Wednesday): “I just decided it wasn’t what I wanted to do and wanted to come back to what I was doing before.”

That, however, does not include getting back into the swing of Lib Dem politics.

Mr Thompson, 28, was elected in Kentish Town in 2006 after working on the campaign to save the Prince of Wales Baths from closure.

But two years later, the New Journal discovered he had enrolled on a ­university course in the US and it was this newspaper that broke the bad news to the Lib Dem high command. 

The episode caused lasting embarrassment for the party in Camden, although they did win  the by-election caused  by his departure.

Mr Thompson said yesterday: “I had a job here before I went and I wanted to come back. I’m not back in Camden. I’m not a member of any political party now.”

He said:”If you have been hearing that I’ve joined another party it is a vicious rumour. I’ve no idea where that would have come from.”