Last week’s local elections were full of surprises – but perhaps no surprise was bigger than the one handed to Hampstead Town candidate and solicitor Adrian Cohen.

Cohen was elected to Camden Council as Labour took control of the borough, but his victory was so unexpected that he had not even planned to be at the count. Indeed, some reports even suggested he had not campaigned in the build-up to Thursday’s election.

National media jumped on a tweet from one local journalist that Cohen ‘had to be woken from his bed’ to get to the count, and he was widely congratulated on looking relatively sprightly when he arrived to hear of his win.

The truth, alas, may be a little more mundane. Cohen responded to a congratulatory message on his LinkedIn profile to say he was ‘up but WFH’.

According to his profile, restructuring and insolvency specialist Cohen left magic circle firm Clifford Chance last week after almost 32 years, of which 24 were as partner. He is hardly likely to have much spare time, as he is also the founder and co-chair of the London Jewish Forum and lay chair of Labour Friends of Israel. There will definitely be no time for sleeping on the job in the coming years.

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