Labour councillor Tamar Barrett, who has gone nearly four years without declaring her directorship of a company, has just received a £10,000 grant from the council for services provided by her business.
EXCLUSIVE by STEVEN DOWNES
Ten grand top-up: Labour councillor Tamar Barrett, whose company has been given a council contract
Croydon Council has handed a £10,000 grant to Lioness Pride CIC, the company which has Labour councillor Tamar Barrett as a director.
Since she was elected to the council in 2022, Barrett has never declared her directorship of Lioness Pride.
Inside Croydon revealed Barrett’s directorship in an exclusive report last month. Neither the councillor, nor the council’s legal officials, had done anything to correct the declaration in almost four years.
Barrett failed to respond when this website approached her for an explanation over why she had failed to complete a pretty basic, yet important, piece of councillor admin.
Last week, on August 28, Councillor Barrett did add the following to her online declarations on her council profile, under “Provide details of any contract that you or your partner (or a Body in which either of you have a beneficial interest) have entered into with the London Borough of Croydon under which goods or services are to be provided or works are to be executed and which has not been fully discharged”.
In this afterthought amendment to her declarations, Councillor Barrett wrote: “I am a director of The Lioness Pride CIC, which has received £10,000 funding from the London Borough of Croydon in July 2025 to support the Lioness Circle’s Anthology and Play project.
“This is a contractual arrangement between the Council and the CIC. I do not personally receive any remuneration from this funding or from my role as director.”
Late notice: Barrett’s declarations still omit anything under directorships, but at least she has belatedly ‘fessed up to her £10,000 council grant
Given the grant was made in July 2025, even this declaration by Barrett was at least four weeks late.
Meanwhile, Barrett’s declarations of company directorships remain blank on the council record.
Croydon Labour has refused to say whether Barrett will be sanctioned in any way for failing to declare a company directorship – something which is required by law.
Under Section 30 of the Localism Act 2011, all councillors are required to keep their register of interests up to date. It is unlawful to submit a false declaration.
The council’s Code of Conduct also requires openness, transparency and honesty of all Croydon staff and its elected members – meaning councillors.
Barrett, a councillor for Thornton Heath ward, was deselected last month at a meeting of local Labour members.
Observers at the virtual meeting say that several attendees were outraged that their elected representative had failed to bother listing that she had been a director of Lioness Pride CIC since December 2016 (originally under the name Tamar Nwafor).
There was further controversy when Barrett claimed to be the only candidate for selection to live in Thornton Heath, but had to be corrected because she does not live in the ward.
Yet some sources in Croydon Labour are suggesting that senior figures in the party are already lining up a rapid political comeback for 29-year-old Barrett, perhaps with a selected council election candidate in a safe Labour ward stepping aside closer to May 7 polling day next year, when it will be too late to hold a proper selection meeting, and Barrett can be installed in their place.
“We are lucky to have your commitment, skill and talent on the council and in our labour group… sure we’ll continue to work together to serve,” one well-connected Croydon Labour figure tweeted to Barrett following her deselection.
Croydon Labour’s selection process for next year’s local elections has been managed by the NEC, the National Executive Committee, and London region officials. Grass-roots members have been bypassed and marginalised on several occasions, particularly over short-listing candidates ahead of selection meetings, on the rare occasions such meetings have taken place.
Backing Rowenna Davis: how Cllr Barrett’s endorsement appears on the Labour mayoral candidate’s website
Barrett is prominent among those providing endorsements for Rowenna Davis, the Blue Labour candidate for Croydon Mayor, who is known to have strong connections with members of the NEC.
Lioness Pride CIC is a very small company, which has its registered office address changed recently, to Mildenhall, near rural Bury St Edmunds, nearly 90 miles from urban Thornton Heath. Originally (from 2016 until 2021) called Goodaz Gold Events Ltd, Companies House records say that the company now provides “business support service activities not elsewhere classified”.
Lioness Pride was gazetted earlier this year for formal striking off for failing to submit its accounts on time, but that action has been discontinued.
It is almost a year since they filed their accounts for 2023. Those accounts showed a company making a £2,000 profit on a turnover of less than £10,000.
Barrett describes herself as a “domestic abuse specialist”.
At the weekend, Councillor Barrett broke her silence since her deselection.
In a lengthy, and somewhat self-regarding, internet post, she appeared to dismiss the notion that she had done anything wrong over her failure to make declarations.
Late reprieve?: Barrett (foreground in the shades) has continued to deliver leaflets for the Davis campaign since her deselection in Thornton Heath last month
“Politics is not always fair or easy but I remain proud to serve Thornton Heath. Though not reselected, I’ll keep working hard until the end of my term: creating safe spaces for young people — because real change happens when we stand together.
“I came into politics not through privilege, but through lived experience… Leaving behind a corporate career, I dedicated years to grassroots community work: standing with survivors of abuse, supporting families and building local networks with care.”
Barrett claims that she holds the role as councillor “with humility and pride”.
Barrett goes on to claim that, “After consulting with the council’s monitoring officer and democratic services, I can confirm my declaration was correctly filed in 2022 — and remains up to date. I will always meet my legal and ethical duties, because transparency and accountability matter.”
According to council records, Barrett has attended almost 40 meetings since becoming a councillor. Elected members are asked, at the start of every piece of formal council business, to declare any interests that they might have. According to official records, Barrett has never mentioned her company directorship at any of those meetings.
Croydon Council says it is the responsibility of councillors, “… to update their register of interests within 28 days of becoming aware of any new interest or of a change to a registered interest”.
In Barrett’s case, that one-month grace period was extended to 36 months. Because until last month, Barrett never declared any interests at all.
Throughout all of 2024, “proud to serve” Barrett managed to do just 10 pieces of casework on behalf of residents in Thornton Heath, one of the borough’s most deprived wards.
Barrett is paid almost £12,000 per year in councillor allowances, yet she was averaging less than one piece of casework for residents per month.
Barrett is the sixth Croydon councillor that Inside Croydon investigations have discovered to have broken the law and the council’s Code of Conduct by failing to make proper declarations or submitting a false declaration.
But she is the only one to have received council money for a business in which she is a director.
Read more: Labour councillor Clark is forced to seek re-election in Fairfield
Read more: Councillor has been breaking law on disclosures since 2022
Read more: #TheLabourFiles: MP Reed, Evans and the Croydon connection
Read more: Local Labour members angry at ‘travesty’ of selection process
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The Wikipedia page on Blue Labour was a revelation. They’re even worse than I thought. They’re not Conservatives with red rosettes, they’re Reform
So much for the rule of law with the Croydon Labour Party. They clearly believe that they exist above it now. What a dreadful state they look from the outside.
Dick Turpin wore a mask. These do it bare faced