Former Tory leader Gio Spinella delivers touching tribute at full council meeting Former Conservative councillor Leila Roy [Linda Grove] SHOCK and grief has met the death of a community campaigner who died suddenly on Friday evening aged 39. Leila Roy had been the first black woman to represent the Conservatives at the Town Hall during a four-year spell. Beyond party politics, she was known as a neighbourhood activist in Gospel Oak and Belsize Park who campaigned for more school places, council home repairs and protection for independent shops against big supermarket chains. She passed away from a heart condition which she had been aware of, but refused to let hold her back.