Council Leader Says Failure to Declare Directorship 'Honest Mistake'
Defends cabinet colleague Sue Sampson after calls for her resignation
Cllr Sue Sampson says the company has never operated or received any income
October 8, 2026
The leader of Hounslow Council has dismissed a senior cabinet colleague’s failure to declare a directorship of a company as an ‘honest mistake’ after opposition councillors called for her dismissal.
Councillor Sue Sampson, the council Cabinet Member for Housing, did not disclose that she was a director of a company named Cestrensis Limited, however she maintains the company never became active and that she never financially benefited.
This comes just days after the Labour group lost majority control of the council following the separate arrest and suspension of Councillor Gurbachan Athwal, who denies any wrongdoing.
Cestrensis Limited lists Cllr Sampson as a director under the name Susan Lockyer. Cllr Sampson maintains that this is not a recent arrangement and there has never been any attempt to conceal the connection between the two names – with her election records in 2018 noting she is known as Sue Sampson.
Within the company, Cllr Sampson owns between 25 and 49 per cent of shares. However, this was not listed in her declaration of interests – until raised by the Local Democracy Reporting Service – despite the Hounslow Council constitution stating any unpaid directorships as a registrable interest.
Cllr Sampson has admitted that she did not declare the position on the belief that she didn’t have to telling the LDRS: “I am a director and shareholder of Cestrensis Limited, where I am registered as Susan Lockyer.
“The company was incorporated in September 2025 and Companies House records my appointment as a director on 15 September 2025. Cestrensis has never traded or operated and has never received any income.
“I had understood that, in those circumstances, it did not need to be included on my Register of Interests. I have sought guidance from the Monitoring Officer to ensure that my register was fully compliant with the Council’s requirements and will make any amendment that I am advised is necessary.”
She added: “I take my responsibilities concerning transparency and declarations of interest seriously.” The LDRS asked Cllr Sampson what it is her company actually does given it has never traded, operated, or received any income.
According to Cllr Sampson, the company was incorporated with the intention of purchasing, selling and leasing residential property. The Cabinet Member for Housing told the LDRS: “The company never became active, never traded, never acquired any assets and never received any income. The proposed venture did not proceed.”
This is not the first instance of a Hounslow Labour councillor failing to declare that they are the director of a company. This comes just six months after her former Hounslow Labour colleague, Farhaan Rehman, violated the constitution by not declaring three unpaid directorships.
In October 2025, the LDRS found that Cllr Rehman had failed to declare an interest in three companies he had been a director of. At the time, Cllr Rehman insisted he had not been paid for these roles, and Hounslow Labour argued that he had not broken any rules in not declaring an interest.
However in April 2026 the investigating officer disagreed, and concluded that he should have declared an interest – even if the role was unpaid – violating the council’s constitution.
Liberal Democrats Councillor Roger Crouch has called on Councillor Shantanu Rajawat, Leader of Hounslow Council, to remove Cllr Sampson from the Cabinet. He added: “According to the council rules it is imperative that councillors act with integrity and maintain standards. Cllr Sampson failing to declare a directorship breaks the rules, and pending further investigation the Leader of the Council should remove her from the Cabinet.”
Councillor Jack Emsley, the Leader of the Hounslow Conservatives, described the revelation as “the latest example of a Hounslow Labour Party falling apart at the seams.”
He added: “It is a legal necessity for councillors to declare their business interests, yet once again a Hounslow Labour Councillor has tried to conceal their directorships from the public – just like former councillor Farhaan Rehman, residents will be left wondering what Sue Sampson has to hide.
“The obvious question now is why Councillor Sampson, an experienced cabinet member, failed to declare this directorship. This is just the latest example of a Hounslow Labour Party falling apart at the seams, mired in scandal after scandal.
“Residents demanded better in May’s local elections, but instead we’ve just got the same old Hounslow Labour.”
In a statement provided to the LDRS, Cllr Sampson said: “I do not accept the suggestion that I sought to conceal information or that I have something to hide. My appointment as a director has been publicly recorded on the Companies House register since the company’s incorporation.
“The information was, and remains, available to anyone searching the public record. For clarity, I use both the names Susan Lockyer and Sue Sampson.
“This is not a recent arrangement and there has never been any attempt to disguise the connection between the two names. Hounslow Council’s own election records have for many years publicly identified me as ‘Susan Lockyer (known as Sue Sampson)’.
“There has therefore never been any attempt to obscure either my identity or my association with the company. In the interests of openness and transparency, I have now registered the directorship as an Other Registrable Interest.
“The company has never been active, never traded, never received income and has provided no financial benefit to me. On that basis, it is not deemed to constitute a Disclosable Pecuniary Interest.
“This is not a case involving a hidden business operation, undisclosed income or personal financial gain. It concerns an inactive company that never commenced business and from which no benefit was derived.”
Cllr Rajawat, Leader of the Council, said: “Councillor Sampson accepts that she made an error and immediately self-referred to the Monitoring Officer and took advice and steps to update her register of interests. There was a clear misunderstanding around the need to declare unpaid, unremunerated directorships – even of inactive companies that have never traded.
“I am satisfied that Councillor Sampson made an honest mistake and that she has taken the appropriate actions in the interest of transparency to ensure that her Register of Interests is now fully up to date.”
Philip James Lynch - Local Democracy Reporter
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