Cllr Richard Watts

Councillor Richard Watts has lived in Islington since 1998, representing Tollington ward in the north of Islington since 2006.

Richard served as Executive Member for Children & Families from May 2010 and Executive Member for Finance & Performance from May 2013 until he became Council Leader in October 2013.

Before becoming a full time member of the Council’s Executive, Richard ran the Children’s Food Campaign, a national campaign to improve children’s diets. Previously he worked for a number of different campaigns and a consultancy organisation, which led to some work in Kosovo helping develop the political party that formed out of the KLA guerrilla army. He graduated with a degree in politics from Durham University and before this worked in the Pretty Polly tights factory in Nottinghamshire. He is a governor of City and Islington College.

Richard and his partner have two children.