Charles Anglin

Charles Alfred Anglin (born in 29 January 1971 in London) is a Liberal Democrat politician in the London Borough of Lambeth. He was (until defeated in May 2006) a councillor for Prince's ward in Kennington (along with Keith Fitchett and Dinti Wakefield).

Anglin was educated at Addey and Stanhope School, Deptford and Queen Mary, University of London where he gained a degree in History and Politics. Whilst a student he was involved in the Queen Mary Students' Union and the National Union of Students where he was the Liberal Democrat candidate for President of NUS.

2005 general election
In the 1997 general election he stood in the Leyton and Wanstead constituency and in the 2005 general election in the Vauxhall constituency. In both cases he was unsuccessful but increased the Liberal Democrats' share of the vote.

In an interview for the Today Programme after the 2005 election, Anglin blamed the defeat partly on the policy of local income tax which he said allowed the party to be "caricatured as a left-wing tax and spend party". Until its closure in 2005 Anglin was a member of modernising thinktank Liberal Future.

2006 Lambeth Borough Council elections
Anglin lost his Council seat in May 2006 after suffering a highly negative campaign, which led to claims that he had been the victim of an ‘anti-gay’ smears.

This followed claims in the South London Press, a local tabloid newspaper, over Anglin’s private life.

The South London Press article on Friday 31 March 2006 led with revelations about Councillor Anglin claiming that he has "posed naked on a website, handling his private parts and revealing his sexual fantasies". The article went on to say that "he has boasted of his sexual prowess on the website and revealed he gets an erotic kick wrestling other men." - they were referring to Anglin's profile on the Gaydar website. The paper, known for its sensationalist journalism, stressed that the day after they had viewed the profile many of the images had been removed and the descriptions toned down.

Gay groups condemned the reporting, with well known campaigner Peter Tatchell of Outrage defending Anglin telling Pink News "This story is gratuitous titillation, there is not even a public interest grounds for revealing these details. He is not being hypocritical or homophobic." Tatchell praised the councillor's work in areas of lesbian gay transgender and bisexual rights, "He doesn’t deserve to be sensationalised in this puerile way."

Anglin himself commented "I don't see this is an issue. I am a gay man and I've always been open about my sexuality."

Election result
Charles Anglin was defeated in the Lambeth Borough Council elections held on 4 May 2006. All three Liberal Democrat councillors standing in Princes ward were defeated in the Labour landslide, which saw the Lib Dems lose 10 seats across the Borough. The larger than average swing against the Lib Dems in Princes ward was widely seen as the result of an unusually high evangelical Christian vote, motivated in part by the negative campaign against Anglin.

Main Menu

See Also

Main Menu