Labour has denied local party members in Shooters Hill the right to choose their candidates for May’s council election – just weeks after it lost a by-election in the ward with a candidate who had been parachuted in.
Party officials are considering resigning over the issue, which comes as Labour members across the borough finally start to decide who will represent their party next year.
“The ward party will probably collapse if they leave,” one party insider, who asked not to be named, told The Greenwich Wire.
In June Labour lost a by-election in Shooters Hill to the Greens after one of its two councillors there, Ivis Williams, quit after she was investigated and threatened with suspension for speaking up for residents who objected to the sale of council properties in the ward. Raja Zeeshan, her ward colleague, had given evidence against her.
Party officials imposed Jummy Dawado as the candidate, and after a disastrous campaign in which she criticised residents who were fighting against the land sales, Tamasin Rhymes became the Greens’ first councillor in the borough.
After Williams resigned, the Shooters Hill party called Zeeshan to an emergency meeting, at which he was criticised for not supporting his fellow councillor.
The London regional party has now halted the selection for next May because minutes of that meeting were circulated to party members. Those minutes included the criticism of Zeeshan, who is now on the “approved panel” who are eligible to stand for the party.
About 90 members will now lose their right to choose a candidate. The process was due to start on Wednesday with a shortlisting meeting, with a final decision made a week later.
“This decision is not taken lightly,” an email to local members sent on Tuesday said. “However, having consulted with the party’s governance and legal team we cannot be confident that any process in the ward would be free from the challenge of bias at this time.
“This meeting and those minutes lay out a series of accusations concerning the conduct of one or more members of the approved panel, no right of reply or challenge was provided.”
Members of the party’s London regional executive committee will now make the choice.
The email was simply signed “Kind regards, London Labour”, with no official putting their name to it.
“It’s really unfair on the members – just a handful were at the meeting, yet they are all being penalised,” another local source said.
Zeeshan is one of 60 hopefuls on the “approved panel” who can put their names forward to stand in Greenwich’s 55 seats. They include existing councillors and newcomers. Dawado is also on the panel, despite her losing the by-election.
The selection process is already running late after a delay following the loss in Shooters Hill, when councillors who had been deselected were given a new chance to appeal.
Shooters Hill had been a rock-solid Labour ward for some years, but will now be a key battleground as the Greens look to hold their seat and potentially gain a second councillor. Labour’s national difficulties, plus local issues such as the sales of land at Shrewsbury House and the Greenwich Equestrian Centre, and will ensure a tough battle for whoever is picked there.
London Labour has not responded to a request for comment.
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