Legal Opinion Says SCC Employment Doesn’t Preclude Candidacy for West Surrey Council

Published on: 3 Jun, 2026
Updated on: 3 Jun, 2026

By Martin Giles

A legal opinion obtained by Surrey County Council gives the all clear to a West Surrey Councillor whose eligibility as a candidate in the recent election has been questioned.

The eligibility of Cllr Jo Shaw (Lib Dem, Guildford East) had been challenged because she is an employee of the county council and, although SCC is a separate body to the new West Surrey Council, some of their powers appear to overlap in the next 11 months when West Surrey Council is a shadow authority of the existing county and borough councils.

In response to an enquiry from a former R4GV county councillor, Fiona Davidson, Vicky Hibbert, assistant director for Governance and Democratic Services at SCC, said on April 8: “Based on the views gathered, it appears likely that a Surrey County Council employee would be ineligible to stand.

“Even though the new Council is a separate entity from Surrey during the Shadow year, it would still be involved in decisions related to the conclusion of Surrey, which would disqualify a Surrey employee from being elected as a councillor.”

But the Lib Dem group leader at WSC, Paul Follows, has said that Shaw had checked with both SCC, where she was employed, and Guildford Borough Council, where she was already a councillor, about standing and “no issues were raised”.

Shaw herself has not responded to enquiries from The Guildford Dragon.

Today, after weeks of waiting for an answer from SCC about what they specifically told Shaw, the council reiterated: “It is the responsibility of a candidate to assess whether they are disqualified from standing for election.”

But its statement continued: “In this case, Surrey County Council obtained external legal advice and had confirmation that an employee of the council may also simultaneously be a member of the shadow authority, up to the point of vesting day [when the new council takes over from the county and borough councils]. This is because the two authorities remain as two separate entities.

“However, at the point of vesting day, the position changes. If the employee has their employment transferred to the same successor authority where they are also a member, they will need to either resign from their employment or otherwise become disqualified for that office, thereby triggering a by-election.”

This would appear to leave the way clear for Cllr Shaw to remain as a councillor on West Surrey Council and be employed by East Surrey Council.

The Dragon has now asked SCC to say when the legal opinion was sought and obtained. Questions were first raised about Jo Shaw’s eligibility as a candidate at least a month before the election held on May 7.

Comment: A Storm In a Teacup? No, Rules on Candidacy Should Be Re-examined