INSIDE SUTTON: Just days after his local party posted leaflets online calling on supporters to vote for him in May, the controversial councillor on the Costa has changed his mind – but that won’t stop him pocketing thousands of pounds in council allowances.
EXCLUSIVE by CARL SHILTON, investigations editor
Couple in trouble: Sutton’s last remaining Labour councillors, Señor Sheldon Vestey and Dave Tchil (right). But for how much longer?
Señor Sheldon Vestey, the Labour councillor for Hackbridge who lives 1,000 miles away in southern Spain, will not be seeking re-election to Sutton Council in May.
Inside Sutton can reveal that the controversial – some say toxic – Labour councillor has had a late change of mind and will no longer be seeking a second term.
But Vestey and Labour maintained a pretence that he would be seeking re-election for long enough that they have avoided a ward by-election to replace the absentee councillor – a by-election which may well have ended up with Labour losing another council seat.
The Carshalton and Wallington Labour Party posted leaflets online just a few days ago appealing for residents’ support at the ballot box in May for Señor Vestey.
But last night, his closest colleague and fellow ward councillor admitted to Inside Sutton that Señor Vestey will not now be seeking re-election.
“Sheldon’s personal life has been extremely challenging and his generosity and care for vulnerable children and family members is something to respect,” Councillor Dave Tchil said.
Tchil added that by “sheer chance” he and Vestey were intending to share this news with the voters in Hackbridge – the people who for more than a year have been paying thousands of pounds in allowances to the councillor living on the Costa.
Quick change: days before, Labour officials were posting a different version of this leaflet, asking for people to vote for Vestey
By “sheer chance”, Inside Sutton yesterday reported how Vestey had been found to have broken multiple parts of Sutton’s Code of Conduct, and has refused to provide the apology to fellow councillors and undergo “training”, as recommended by a council panel which upheld complaints about his disrespecting others, bullying and harrassment and improper use of council resources.
The upheld complaints arose after Vestey conducted an online harassment campaign against Tory councillor Steve Alvaraz which included wild allegations of paedophilia, illegal pornography, racism, sexual predation and incitement to murder. None of Vestey’s allegations were substantiated.
Tchil’s admission that Vestey is to stand down as a councillor came just as a council committee was discussing what potential sanctions were available for Vestey’s failure to apologise and comply with other conduct recommendations.
According to Tchil, a new Labour leaflet is to go out with “a message from Sheldon”.
In the leaflet, Vestey is supposed to say: “Following a close family bereavement and ongoing family health issues, I have taken on full-time care of my nephew and will be supporting him through his education during this critical period of his life. As a result, I am unable to stand again.
“I hope you will continue to support Dave and Margaret, who will be taking my place. Thank you to everyone who has offered support and kind words over the years.”
“Margaret” is Margaret Thomas, who will be Tchil’s running mate in the two-seat Hackbridge ward.
According to sources within the Labour Party in Sutton, Thomas is not a fan of Vestey. When the subject of Vestey was raised after a local committee meeting recently, Thomas was heard to say, “Don’t talk to me about Sheldon.”
Vestey seems certain to continue to trouser thousands of pounds in council allowances between now and the end of April. He already has the worst attendance record of all Sutton’s 55 councillors, and now may never attend another council meeting. It was unclear how he would qualify to be a council election candidate in 2026: he has not lived in Sutton (one possible qualification) for more than a year, and he is not known to have any business based in the borough (another requirement of council candidates).
No fan of Vestey: new Hackbridge candidate Margaret Thomas
Señor Vestey and Dave Tchil were two of three Labour councillors elected to Sutton Council in 2022, the party’s first to be elected in the borough for 20 years. But that was as good as it got.
With Vestey as the Labour group leader on the council, matters quickly turned very sour.
In March 2024, Sheila Berry, Labour’s third councillor, in St Helier West, resigned abruptly after having a falling out with Vestey.
“In the end, it became too much,” Berry told a colleague.
Later that year, Vestey’s Sutton Labour colleagues only discovered he and his family had done a bunk to Spain when they read about it on Inside Sutton.
It was this website which investigated the unusual, at best, loan arrangements on the Vestey family home in New Mill Quarter, which had been bought with a “Help to Buy” mortgage supposedly only available to people who owned no other properties, when Vestey already owned a house in Norwich.
Last night, Councillor Tchil refused to say what steps he had taken, if any, to get his colleague to comply with the recommendations of Sutton’s Code of Conduct panel.
Soon-to-be-ex-councillor Vestey refused to answer the questions put to him by Inside Sutton. He gave no indication that any apology for his serial misconduct will be forthcoming.
Read more: No apologies from Señor Vestey over three conduct complaints
Read more: ‘Greetings from Spain’: absent councillor suffers señor moment
Read more: The Help to Buy mortgage and councillor’s shifting interests
Read more: ‘Local’ councillor now based 1,000 miles from Hackbridge
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