Columnist ANDREW FISHER looks forward to a rare moment of internal democracy in Croydon Labour this Saturday, as ordinary members in one scandal-hit CLP finally get the chance to choose their parliamentary candidate
Being a Labour Party member in Croydon is rarely a joyful experience. In fact for members in Croydon East, it isn’t even an experience: we haven’t been allowed to meet since September.
That was when Labour’s London regional office imposed three new officers on the newly formed CLP – Constituency Labour Party – of Croydon East. Despite promises, these interim officials have failed to call a meeting in six months since.
The chair hasn’t chaired a single meeting, the secretary doesn’t reply to members’ correspondence, and there’s no way of knowing whether the treasurer has been keeping an eye on the bank accounts.
In my own ward of Woodside, we were not even allowed to pick our council candidate for the forthcoming by-election. No explanation was given, as we members have come to expect. Members were not even informed of who put themselves forward, but the successful candidate (appointed by party apparatchiks) was announced on Twitter.
As a Labour Party member, you often get the impression that some high-handed officials believe that participation and democracy are an inconvenient constraint on their glorious administration and can be dispensed with at will.
Croydon Central: residents in Croydon East have ‘lost’ their MP, Sarah Jones, and only get to see her now when she’s on TV
Despite still having her office within the bounds of the new Croydon East constituency, Sarah Jones, who was elected as the MP for Croydon Central, will contest the next General Election as the Labour candidate for Croydon West – a constituency Labour party that does actually call meetings, and Jones duly attends.
Those 90% of her constituents who are now in Croydon East have been deprived of the chance to hold her to account, raise issues with her or even lavish praise on our erstwhile representative. At least we can watch her on BBC Question Time tonight…
It could be worse. We could be saddled with Steve Reed, the self-declared “social conservative” who will stand in Streatham and Croydon North at the General Election. He might need to be careful with his self-description – the last time Streatham elected a Conservative (social or anti-social) was in 1987.
But this Saturday we, the mere peasants of Croydon East Labour, get a rare taste of democracy when we are allowed not only to meet but to vote for who we think should be our party’s candidate at the General Election.
The Labour membership in Croydon East is now 500 – down from the nearly 700 that Croydon Central had just a year ago, and less than half of the 1,200 peak of five years ago. Some of that membership decline will be down to the boundary changes that have seen Fairfield ward move to Croydon West, but for others, a disillusionment with the party locally and nationally is the driving factor.
‘Have party officials or local members been suspended pending investigation?’
Some members have told me they have quit over Labour’s reaction to the Gaza war and other issues, frustrated at sectarian purges (including of the previous party leader, but also the treatment of respected local figures), and, inevitably, because their local party never meets. The further tarnishing of its reputation with alleged criminal activity now being investigated by the Metropolitan Police, as first revealed by this website, won’t have helped, either.
Which brings us back to Saturday’s long-delayed hustings and selection meeting to decide the Labour parliamentary candidate for Croydon East.
There are three candidates: Olga Fitzroy, Natasha Irons and Johnson Situ – one from Lambeth, Merton and Southwark, though each with some connections to our borough.
This process formally began back in July 2023, but the membership was bypassed even then over the shortlisting stage of selection, when we were presented with four candidates: the remaining three plus Joel Bodmer. That contest was suspended just days before the scheduled hustings, after complaints about data manipulation and potential voting fraud.
Drop out: ex-candidate Joel Bodmer
Last week, Bodmer announced he was not standing any more. His announcement came before the news broke of the police investigation into the previous contest. It is not known whether Bodmer has been part of the police inquiry.
The remaining members in Croydon East have been told that London Region will be running Saturday’s meeting, rather than the local officials that London Region had imposed on the new CLP last September.
Saturday’s selection meeting will be the first in-person meeting of the Croydon East CLP. Aside from the opportunity to quiz the candidates, given the circumstances of the on-going police investigation, many members attending will want to know what is happening to their local party.
Have party officials or local members been suspended pending investigation?
Could those uncontaminated by corruption and police investigation be allowed to have meetings again?
How are we supposed to campaign for the candidate we select if our local party doesn’t communicate with us or allow us to meet?
Expectations of any substantial answers for members are low, but that has the upside that regional officials could delight us and boost morale with some uncharacteristic candour and transparency.
Whoever wins on Saturday – whether Olga Fitzroy, Natasha Irons or Johnson Situ (all of whom seem decent people) – their campaign to be the new MP for Croydon East has not been helped by the scandalous and undemocratic behaviour of some party officials. Those responsible, hopefully, will soon be removed.
On the upside, the Conservatives have lent Labour a helping hand by selecting Councillor Jason “15% Council Tax hike” Cummings as their candidate, whose own prospects have been undermined by the daily failures and scandals of the Conservative Government in Westminster.
- From 2015 to 2019, Andrew Fisher was the Labour Party’s Director of Policy under Jeremy Corbyn. Fisher is also the author of The Failed Experiment – and how to build an economy that works, and now writes columns for InsideCroydon, the i newspaper and is a regular pundit on BBC and Sky News programmes
Andrew Fisher’s recent columns:
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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
