Someone called Austin Powers is standing for Reform in Greenwich

The search for the most shagadelic ballot paper in this year’s English local elections has come to a definitive conclusion – it’s Abbey Wood in Greenwich.

That’s where voters will get the opportunity to pick the one and only Austin Powers to represent them on the Royal Borough’s council.

Or maybe not the ‘one and only’ – there is no indication this is the same Austin Powers who was frozen in 1967, only to be revived 30 years later in a bid to prevent Dr Evil destroying the world with nuclear weapons.

But with no headshot or biographical details readily available, there’s no way to know for sure.

Powers is one of three candidates standing for Reform UK in the south-east London ward.

Astonishingly, the other two also have names reminiscent of characters in Mike Myers’ spy parody movies: Gregory Rodwell and Ruth Handyside.

The election in Greenwich next month will be interesting for reasons beyond the eye-catching names of a few candidates.

In the Woolwich Arsenal ward, a man called Hugh O’Leary is standing for the Conservatives.

That fact might not draw much attention from non-politics geeks, but others will recognise him as the husband of former Prime Minister Liz Truss.

It’s highly unusual for the spouse of a one-time occupant of Number 10 to run for office themselves, and this is thought to be the first time that’s happened in more than 100 years.

What makes it stranger is Truss’s apparent drift towards Reform since she lost her seat at the 2024 general election, including a prediction that Nigel Farage will be the next PM.

It raises the question of whether Liz Truss is now ideologically closer to Austin Powers than her husband.

Local elections will take place across England on May 7, with Senedd elections in Wales and Holyrood elections in Scotland going ahead on the same day.

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