Site icon Inside Croydon

Labour officials to hand-pick council candidate for Woodside

insidecroydon

Croydon Labour members had barely got their breath back last night after the express declaration of Mrs Anonyvoter – Maddie Henson – as the party’s candidate for the London elections, than some were dealing with another blow to their solar plexus as they were told that they will have no say in the selection of the candidate for the Woodside ward by-election.

Can’t be trusted: Croydon Labour wants your vote, but they won’t allow their members to choose their own candidates

“It looks like party officials won’t trust members to choose their own candidate democratically,” an angry Labour member said today.

There has been a councillor vacancy in Labour stronghold Woodside since January when Mike Bonello resigned.

No by-election has yet been called, probably because of an unspoken consensus among local political parties that there is no need for the £10,000 expense of a one-off ward election when it can be staged alongside the London elections on May 2.

Yesterday evening, soon after emailing members in Croydon and Sutton with the news than Henson was to be Labour’s candidate across the two boroughs for the London Assembly, the party’s regional officials distributed a further communication, inviting applications for selection as candidate in Woodside.

The notification shocked members, who discovered that they would have no part to play in the selection of a candidate to represent them. Constituency Labour Parties – CLPs – and their ward and branch organisations usually decide on the short-list and have an all-members’ meeting to choose candidates.

Not in Woodside, in dysfunctional Croydon, under the increasingly controlling Labour Party in 2024, however.

According to Labour’s London region’s missive, candidates who apply for selection, “… if taken forward… will be invited to attend an interview conducted by a Regional Executive Committee Panel to determine the candidate”.

Woodside is part of the new Croydon East CLP which, although formed six months ago, has not yet had a single meeting of its members. The selection of Labour’s parliamentary candidate for Croydon East was suspended last November when evidence of voting fraud and illicit tampering with the constituency’s membership list were reported.

Gone, but not forgotten: Tony Newman, Woodside councillor until 2021

Members, meanwhile, have been left waiting for further announcements on when that selection will be re-opened.

And rank-and-file members in Woodside appear now to have been disenfranchised by their own party. “Outrageous,” said one.

“We have selected all our candidates previously,” said another, who failed to mention that these have in the past included Tony Newman and Paul Scott, the best mates and former council leader and planning chief who between them played key parts in the council’s financial collapse. Newman has been “administratively suspended” by Labour for three years, with no official statement on the outcome of the party’s inquiries.

According to yesterday’s note from London Labour, those seeking to be selected as the party’s candidate in the usually safe Labour ward of Woodside have until noon this Thursday to submit a nomination form, a declaration and monitoring form, with interviews to take place via Zoom on the evening of March 18.

“They should also expect that due diligence will be conducted and they may be asked to provide clarification where further information is required,” applicants were warned.

Read more: Anonyvoter’s co-owner wins Labour vote held on Anonyvoter
Read more: Croydon East members claim Labour has still not emailed them
Read more: Labour Party forced to halt second Croydon selection process
Read more: #TheLabourFiles: MP Reed, Evans and the Croydon connection

Inside Croydon – If you want real journalism, delivering real news, from a publication that is actually based in the borough, please consider paying for it. Sign up today: click here for more details


Exit mobile version