Lewisham’s elected mayor, Damien Egan, has stepped down from his post to pursue his dream of becoming an MP — triggering a by-election to decide who runs the borough.
Egan was picked yesterday to stand for Labour in the Kingswood by-election following the resignation of the Gloucestershire seat’s Conservative MP, Chris Skidmore, in protest at his party’s attempt to encourage more drilling for oil and gas in the North Sea.
The Kingswood seat will cease to exist at the next election and Egan had already been picked for one of the constituencies that will replace it, Bristol North East.
While Bristol North East is seen as a safe Labour seat, Kingswood — where Egan grew up — will be more of a challenge. He will have to overturn Skidmore’s 11,220 majority to reach Westminster.
Lewisham is one of a handful of boroughs run by a mayor elected by residents every four years rather than an old-style council leader, as in Greenwich, who is effectively picked by their party’s councillors in a behind-closed-doors vote.
With no London borough elections due until 2026, Egan’s decision to stand down will mean a by-election for a new mayor. The timing means a poll will cost about £635,000, according to an answer given to Mark Morris, a former Liberal Democrat councillor, at a Lewisham council meeting last year.
Egan became a councillor for Lewisham Central in 2010 and has been the elected mayor of Lewisham since 2018. In May 2022 he won 58 per cent of the vote, with Green candidate Nick Humberstone a distant second on 16 per cent. Labour holds every seat on Lewisham Council, with no other party represented.
He said: “I want to thank everyone in Lewisham for their support over the last 14 years from when I was first elected as a Lewisham councillor to now as mayor. It has been an honour and a privilege to be the mayor of Lewisham and I am proud of what we have achieved by working together: turning around children’s services, improving local schools, an ambitious council house building programme, and our work to support independent high street businesses.”
Lewisham Council said that a date for the by-election would be announced in due course.
Comments are closed.