Chai With Priya: Local election success for Gibraltarian woman

For anyone interested in UK politics, the run up to the local election held last week was a battle between Reform UK and the Green party, with Labour and the Tories suffering heavy losses.

In an unsurprising turn of events, Reform gained 1,349 council seats and took control of 14 councils, while the Green party won 376 council seats, took control of five councils and took two mayoralties.

And while many looked at the results with concern, in my family WhatsApp group it was a day for celebration.

My very own cousin, Jaysica Marvell, was voted in as a Liberal Democrat councillor for the Chells ward in Stevenage.

Born in Gibraltar in 1976, she then moved to New York with her family as a young child, only to return to the Rock during her teenage years where she attended Westside School.

She then went on to university in 1994 where she met her husband, Anthony, and built a life and a family in Stevenage in Hertfordshire.

It was during a recording for The Guilty Feminist podcast that she came across Daisy Cooper, the Lib Dem MP for St Albans, who spoke about US lobbyists who came to the UK to try and overturn abortion rights in the UK.

Inspired by this, Jaysica signed up as a member for the party the very next day.

After two years of getting involved in any way she could, taking part in online hustings two days after having surgery for breast cancer, racking up hundreds of thousands of steps canvassing with her constituents, she was voted in as a borough councillor.

Despite a very low turnout of 36.13%, Jaysica was elected with 701 votes surpassing the Reform UK candidate by 50 votes. The Green Party gained 227 votes, the Labour candidate received 235 votes and the Conservative Party candidate gained 172.

Of the 14 seats available in Stevenage Borough Council, Reform gained nine wards, Labour held three wards and the Liberal Democrats held two wards.

“Although I was born in Gibraltar, I grew up in NY, which was always a democrat state, so when I first moved to the UK in 1994, I asked my peers at university to tell me about the parties here,” Jaysica said.

“They broke it down for me in simple ways, and at the time, it felt like the Liberal Democrats were the closest alignment to what I believed in.”

“I was always excited to vote, it was something ingrained in American teaching how important our rights were, and most of my teachers were strong 70s feminists, and so I voted Lib Dem pretty much all my adult life.”

She received an email from the local Stevenage Lib Dems who were reaching out for candidates after a long-standing County Councillor passed away.

Although she was unsuccessful in being selected as a candidate, she was asked to become an ordinary of their executive team.

“I helped with fellow member Peter Wilkin’s eventual election by canvassing once or twice,” she said.

“I was still recovering from surgery, but it felt good to have something to keep me busy other than ruminating over cancer.”

“I worked with the team for a year, over several by-elections and finally got to run as a paper candidate in the May 2025 elections for county councillors.”

“Of the six seats in Stevenage at the time, five went to Reform and we were able to keep our seat in Chells.”

“During that time, I was slowly gaining trust by working on their social media, and was able to win them over with some impressive results.”

“I also attended the national conferences and really enjoyed getting to know people within the party.”

“I tried to take it easy, as I was also recovering from two surgeries for my breast cancer and radiotherapy treatment.”

“But being involved, whilst setting up a freelance social media consultancy, this was the perfect time for me to get stuck in.”

Jaysica was selected to stand for election in a Lib Dem kept ward of over 40 years.

She described this as a “big responsibility”, adding: “I was incredibly nervous canvassing, and even worried that I would lose them their seat because of the colour of my skin, a problem aroused since the rise of Reform and a huge growth in the far right.”

She sought advice with Lord Shafaq Mohammad of Tinsley, from Sheffield.

They had met at the Liberal Democrat national conference and he gave an open invitation to have coffee with him in the House of Lords, where he gave her “solid advice about speaking to constituents”.

The social media went down particularly well during the campaign and the adds and content Jaysica put together for the team reached far and wide.

However this content did also attract a huge amount of negative comments and laughing emojis, including a comment that read “death to all immigrants”.

“This was reported to the police by my agent,” she said.”

“I thought about removing it but I wanted people to see the kind of nasty things Reform supporters were saying in our town.”

On the other hand, people at the doors were “mostly really nice”.

“I had some amazing conversations, with people who were very supportive, and some whom I needed to do a little more work convincing,” Jaysica added.

“I also delivered 1000s of flyers, letters and calling cards, spent hours walking all over Chells getting to know every nook and cranny.”

“I beat Reform by only 50 votes and as far as I know, they did no canvassing in the area at all, and won votes through national media and reputation.”

A big worry for me when I heard about Jaysica entering politics was the racism she would face at a time like this where hatred towards people of colour is so overt.

But during the campaign Jaysica said she only had a few doors close in her face or “shooed away” from the window.

“No one has said anything about my colour to my face but as I stood by the polling stations, and knowing many of our voters came by postal vote, so many people passed me without being able to look me in the eye,” she said.

“They were not prepared to confront me to my face.”

“Covering the social media, I’ve seen most of these comments, directed to people of colour, in the vilest way.”

“Someone did comment on a video about my accent, (slightly American), but I was able to reply saying I’d lived in Stevenage for almost 25 years, raised kids and worked here, to be able to justify speaking on behalf of the town.”

Looking ahead, Jaysica is looking forward to starting her work in the borough council. During canvassing she has already picked up casework after speaking with constituents.

During the past 12 months work has begun on being selected to run as an MP.

During a conference held last year she met with Al Pinkerton, a Lib Dem MP who is no stranger to Gibraltar.

“He’s keen to have an MP in Parliament with more understanding of the nature of the politics in Gibraltar,” she said.

“This is my goal, to become an MP who leads with compassion, empathy and intelligence and remains strong with my connections to Gibraltar, and I hope this proves useful in the future.”