Candidates have been confirmed for all three of the borough’s seats in next month’s general election – with the Conservatives leaving it until just a few hours before nominations were due to announce their choice for Greenwich & Woolwich.
New boundaries will be in place for the poll on July 4. They take into account the huge growth in population caused by new housing in the north of the borough.
Voters in Shooters Hill, most of Plumstead and part of West Thamesmead will now be in Erith & Thamesmead, while the Eltham seat expands across the borough boundary to become Eltham & Chislehurst.
All three MPs from the last parliament are standing again, with Matt Pennycook returning as the Labour Party’s candidate for Greenwich & Woolwich. Pennycook has represented the seat since 2015, and before that was a councillor in the old Greenwich West ward. Pennycook has a higher profile in this election as the party’s shadow housing minister.
Meanwhile, the Tories took until 8.50am on the day nominations were due to announce their candidate – an hour after under-fire prime minister Rishi Sunak apologised for leaving Europe’s D-Day commemorations early to record an interview. Jonathan Goff, who stood for the party in Ealing, Acton & Shepherds Bush in 2005, threw his hat into the ring with seven hours before the deadline.
He said on social media that had been campaigning for a week already and that it was a “huge honour” to be picked. The Greenwich Conservatives’ Twitter account had still not retweeted his announcement by the time nominations closed at 4pm, while Goff’s own profile had never previously mentioned Greenwich or Woolwich until he became a candidate, instead showing him campaigning in Eltham & Chislehurst and Kensington & Bayswater, where he is listed as living.
With the Tories in disarray, the Liberal Democrats and Greens will fancy their chances of beating them to a second-place finish.
Chris Annous will stand for the Lib Dems, a few months after he stood for the London Assembly in Greenwich & Woolwich. Stacy Smith, the chief executive of the Her Centre charity, will stand for the Greens. Two years Smith came just 68 votes short of becoming the party’s first councillor, in East Greenwich.
Aziz Ndiaye is standing for Reform UK. Sheikh Raquib is standing for George Galloway’s Workers Party, while Priyank Bakshi is standing for the Climate Party, which aims to appeal to green-minded voters who believe the Green Party is “too far to the left”.
An unusual entrant in Greenwich & Woolwich appears to be YouTube prankster Niko Omilana, who came fifth in the London mayoral poll in 2021 after standing to show that young people could be interested in politics.
There are 11 independent candidates bearing Omilana’s name standing in different constituencies around the country, according to a database kept by the volunteers at Democracy Club. One, registered to the Southgate & Wood Green constituency in north London, is standing in Sunak’s Richmond & Northallerton seat in North Yorkshire.
The others, in Bermondsey & Old Southwark, Birmingham Perry Barr, Coventry South, Dundee Central, Ealing Southall, Leeds East, Leeds South, North West Essex and Stockton West are all registered in their home constituencies, as is the one in Greenwich & Woolwich. It would appear the real Niko Omilana will be stepping forward in North Yorkshire in the early hours of July 5, when the votes are counted, rather than at the Waterfront Leisure Centre in Woolwich.
On its own, Eltham had become a safe Labour seat, but the expanded Eltham & Chislehurst constituency brings in a swathe of what would normally be Conservative-leaning voters from across the borough boundary.
But the residents of BR7 are not automatic Tory voters – electing independent councillors two years ago because they believed that Conservative-run Bromley was ignoring their area. The Chislehurst Matters party is staying neutral in this poll.
Labour’s Clive Efford will hope that his popularity in Eltham – and an army of party volunteers marching south – will enable him to stay in post. He was first elected in 1997 and was a Greenwich councillor eleven years before that.
His main challenger will be Charlie Davis for the Conservatives, who will be hoping to capitalise on the popularity of Sir Bob Neill, the former Bromley & Chislehurst MP who has now stepped down. Davis was a Greenwich councillor for six years in the old Eltham North ward before losing his seat in 2022. He also stood for the London Assembly in Greenwich & Lewisham in 2021.
Ulysse Abbate, a local campaigner, will be standing for the Liberal Democrats, while Mark Simpson will be looking to make inroads for Reform. Simpson has represented the party in several elections, including the London Assembly poll last month.
The Greens will be represented by Sam Gabriel, a telecoms professional, while Sean Stewart will stand for the Workers Party.
A left-wing independent, John Courtneidge, will be standing on a ticket of “peace through equality”. Two other independents are standing: Arnold Tarling, a fire safety expert and former Ukip candidate, and Christian Hacking.
Both Labour and the Conservatives are also said to be “throwing the kitchen sink” at fighting a council by-election in Eltham & Chislehurst.
Residents in Mottingham, Coldharbour & New Eltham go to the polls on Thursday to select a new councillor, with both parties treating it as a dry run for the general election three weeks later. Abbate and Simpson are also standing in that election.
Boundary changes mean Erith & Thamesmead is now mainly a Greenwich borough seat, extending from the edge of Woolwich town centre and across to Erith, losing Conservative learning-areas closer to Bexleyheath.
Labour’s Abena Oppong-Asare was first elected to the seat in 2019, having previously been a Bexley councillor. She is currently the shadow minister for women’s health and mental health.
Her Conservative challenger, Richard Mark, is a councillor in Tandridge in Surrey. He only just got elected there in May, having beaten a Caterham Residents candidate by six votes.
Reform UK is standing Michael Pastor, who has previously stood in London Assembly elections for the party as well as for the Blackfen & Lamorbey ward on Bexley Council.
Pierce Chalmers is the Liberal Democrat candidate after previously standing in two Greenwich Council elections in the Blackheath and Kidbrooke areas. Sarah Barry, the Green candidate, is a teacher and has also stood in local elections, this time in the Belvedere ward on Bexley Council.
Mohammed Shahed is standing for the Workers Party, while there is also an independent, Diana Diamond.
- See the official lists on Greenwich Council’s website
- See candidates for Lewisham North, Lewisham East, and Lewisham West & East Dulwich
Voters need to be registered by June 18 at www.gov.uk/register-to-vote. Those already on the register who need ID can apply for a voter recognition certificate or a postal vote, for which no ID is needed.
Story updated at 12.25pm to reflect the fact there are a number of independent candidates called “Niko Omilana” standing around the country; and again on Sunday to add some more detail.
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