Our south-east London correspondent, HILLAIRE FIELDS, on the long-predicted exit of another borough’s leader
Not so local: Damien Egan has resigned as Lewisham’s Mayor
The thrusting political ambitions of Damien Egan, Lewisham’s sometime borough Mayor, finally got the better of him this morning as he officially handed in his executive key fob and set off in pursuit of bigger and better(?) things at a parliamentary by-election in the West Country.
The people of Lewisham, though, have known Egan’s been on his way out for at least the last six months.
He was first elected Mayor in Lewisham in 2018, but the residents in that south London borough spotted his attention was elsewhere early last year, when the Irish-born Egan suddenly discovered some long-ago allegiance with Bristol and pitched in as the “local” candidate for a new seat there.
Egan’s political fickleness has demonstrated one of the inherent weaknesses of the model of having all power placed in the hands of a directly elected mayor (not that Croydon’s Mayor “political incompetence” Perry has the abilities to consider running for any higher office).
The by-election for Lewisham Mayor is likely to cost the borough’s tax-payers at least £635,000 – all to satisfy one man’s personal, political whim.
The resignation last week of Kingswood Tory MP Chris Skidmore was hardly warmly welcomed by Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, but it is also bad news for Lewisham residents, who are faced with picking up an unnecessary and hefty bill, and clearing up the mess left by Egan’s five years in office.
In July, after facing a “Mayor-off” against Bristol’s Marvin Rees, Egan was selected as his party’s parliamentary candidate for the new seat of Bristol North East. Egan had spent at least two months smarming up to the Labour selectorate there (while not doing much work for his £80,000 Lewisham mayoral salary).
Resigned: former Tory minister Chris Skidmore has forced another parliamentary by-election
Much of Skidmore’s Kingswood constituency makes up the new seat, and last night Egan was duly named as his party’s candidate for the by-election.
“Great choice,” was the considered opinion of Egan’s friend, Steve Reed, the sometime MP for Croydon North/Lambeth South, another politician also known for looking after his personal ambitions.
While new Bristol North East is reckoned to be a safe Labour seat, old Kingswood is not. Skidmore had a 11,000 majority in 2019, so Egan is far from a shoo-in this time around.
Egan’s resignation as Lewisham Mayor promptly followed this morning. A date for the mayoral by-election has not yet been announced – it might be held on any Thursday from March 7. Delaying it, to reduce costs, and holding the mayoral by-election on the same date as the London elections in May does not appear to be an option.
Who will replace Egan in the £80,000 per year role as Mayor is a foregone conclusion. They will be wearing a red Labour rosette. In May 2022, Egan won 58% of the Lewisham vote, with Green candidate Nick Humberstone on 16%.
Labour holds every council seat in one-party-state Lewisham.
Egan is the second London Labour Party Mayor who was re-elected as recently as 2022 to leave their position in the space of just six months.
Gone: Hackney Mayor Phil Glanville
Hackney’s Phil Glanville was forced to quit late last year after being caught lying over the arrest for possession of indecent pictures of children of colleague councillor Tom Dewey (a former Labour Party staffer in Croydon). Voters in Hackney duly replaced Glanville with another Labour hack.
In 2021, Glanville and Egan demonstrated how they determinedly toe the party line when they both withdrew from a discussion session organised by a DEMOC-supporting Labour Croydon councillor, Jamie Audsley, intended to demonstrate what a great improvement the mayoral system is for London boroughs over the “strong leader” model.
Such a meeting was an affront to Croydon’s then “strong leader”, Tony “Soprano” Newman, who duly had his mate, David Evans, and Labour HQ pull the rug from under the feet of Egan and Glanville.
“We were lent on heavily,” Glanville admitted at the time.
No one came out of that episode well: Glanville’s political career (he, too, was thought to have had ambitions to become an MP) is in tatters, Audsley was de-selected in Croydon and quit the borough, while Newman remains suspended by the Labour Party for his part in Croydon’s financial collapse.
But Egan now gets his main chance.
Today, 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.”
And with that, he was off on the 120-mile journey to where he has been spending so much time recently.
Westminster fan: Egan has support from the Labour right
The eye-watering cost of the by-election was revealed in an answer to a Lewisham council meeting just before Christmas, leaving many less-than-impressed.
“This is a substantial cost, solely due to someone who was elected less than two years ago now thinking they would be better off seeking a parliamentary seat in Bristol,” according to Mark Morris, a former LibDem councillor, who had raised the question.
“It’s a demanding role, in one of London’s most complex boroughs,” Egan had said in early 2022 when standing for a second term as Lewisham Mayor.
One of the “complex” issues faced by Lewisham has been the churn of senior staff during Egan’s mayoralty. According to the council’s own figures, there have been 41 directors or executive directors, interim or permanent, who have left the authority since Egan first became Mayor in 2018.
At the beginning of December, a new chief executive was to be appointed, 12 months after the departure of their permanent predecessor.
The appointee will be the fifth CEO (including two interims) in Lewisham in the five years since Egan became Mayor.
In fairness to Egan, back in the summer when he announced he was seeking selection in Bristol, he promised to donate his mayoral salary to the Lewisham Food Bank for as long as he was campaigning.
But at a council meeting at the end of September, Egan was forced to admit he hadn’t actually got round to passing on the cash to the worthy cause. Egan accused his questioner of trying to turn “something positive… into something disingenuous and something quite different”.
After the reminder, Egan is understood to have finally made the payment.
It can now, rightly, be regarded as his farewell present to the people of Lewisham.
Read more: Leader’s office forced Labour mayors to pull out of meeting
Read more: Big Bother in Sutton, as no-confidence vote in Evans is blocked
Read more: Croydon Labour meeting bans the use of the word ‘Blairite’
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ROTTEN BOROUGH AWARDS: In January 2024, Croydon was named among the country’s rottenest boroughs for a SEVENTH successive year in the annual round-up of civic cock-ups in Private Eye magazine
