WALTER CRONXITE, Political Editor, on the grumblings of disaffection among ‘loyal’ Labour members in Croydon
What’s left of Labour’s membership in Croydon, even those described as being part of the “loyal mainstream”, are getting increasingly unhappy with the way the party is run under Keir Starmer and his all-powerful henchman, Morgan McSweeney.
A motion was raised at last night’s all-members’ meeting of the Croydon East Constituency Labour Party which was strongly critical of officials in London Region for their delayed and bungled organisation of the party’s mayoral selection earlier this month, and demanding some indication of when Croydon Labour will be removed from “special measures”.
The motion was passed without a single dissenting vote.
Despite the ending of the suspensions of Tony Newman and Simon Hall for their part in crashing the council’s finances in 2020, Croydon Labour remains in special measures with the party nationally, not allowed to conduct much routine business, and especially not trusted to oversee the selection of their own candidates.
Depending on which Woodside postcode Newman lives in, last night’s all-member meeting of the Croydon East CLP could have been the first he would have been allowed to attend since February 2021.
It’s not known whether he will have received a warm welcome, as the party tries to recover from the reputational damage Newman and his Numpties caused.
A first step will be to conduct a respectable and dignified local election campaign in 2026.
“There was a lot of pressure on London Region to get the mayoral selection process to the starting line for obvious reasons,” one member confided to Inside Croydon on strict condition of anonymity in case McSweeney sends the boys in, Beria-style.
“There was the long delay. Then a big rush. Some members – and we are talking about members in the party’s loyal mainstream – felt that they could have organised it better themselves.”
Mayor candidate: Rowenna Davis won Labour’s long-delayed selection to be candidate as Croydon Mayor in 2026
In the event, Rowenna Davis won the two-horse selection race, after London Labour had decided that having a loyal member of Newman’s council cabinet, Manju Shahul-Hameed, on their selection short-list was somehow a good idea. Davis won with 82% of votes cast – not that London Labour bothered including such detail in its announcement to its own members.
With local elections coming up next year, Labour, in common with the other major political parties, has the task of finding at least 70 willing candidates to seek selection.
Indications are that not all is going to plan.
In the minutes of the previous Croydon East CLP meeting, it was recorded that “JC” – Janet Cooke, the CLP’s vice-chair – “said that a meeting of [Croydon] CLP secretaries had been held on 24 March to discuss ways to increase member involvement locally.
“Unfortunately several people had been unable to attend.” Oh dear…
The motion criticising London Labour was the final substantive piece of business last night.
Headed, “Concern over lack of member involvement in Croydon Mayoral selection”, the motion said: “Members of Croydon East CLP would like to express their concern at the lack of opportunity for us to meaningfully engage in the process of selecting a candidate for the Croydon Mayoral elections due to take place in May 2026.
“Members from across the four Croydon CLPs were invited (on Monday 7 April) to attend a hustings event on Wednesday 9 April. This took place online, but there was no opportunity for members to engage with the candidates, whether that be show support for a particular policy idea, raise a question or comment in the chat function, or speak to either of the candidates directly.
“The questions put to the candidates during the one-hour event were not submitted by our members, which meant we were not able to quiz the candidates on issues specific to Croydon.
“This online event took place approximately 48 hours before voting commenced, with members receiving ballots just after 5pm on Friday 11 April (over five hours after we were told to expect them).
“Voting closed on Monday 14 April at midday, which gave members not even three full days to cast their vote. The vote was held during the Easter break, when families are likely to have taken holidays and there was very limited time to apply for and use a postal ballot.
“We understand the timetable for this selection and the process itself was governed by London Labour rather than having direct input from representatives of our borough. While we understand that the reason for this is the local party remaining in ‘special measures’, this decision relates to events from almost five years ago.”
Scandal: some Labour members have called for an investigation into the use of the Anonyvoter remote voting system
It is worth noting that London Labour hardly has a blemish-free record when it comes to events in Croydon: the Metropolitan Police investigation into alleged data fraud over the (London Region-supervised) parliamentary candidate selection for Croydon East in late 2023 is continuing.
The CLP motion continued: “Although we have no doubt that both the candidates who put themselves forward for selection are of high calibre, we believe it is a disservice to members to have a rushed selection process with no opportunity for members to meet the candidates and ask questions about issues that matter to them.
“The 2026 Mayoral elections (as well as the council elections being held at the same time) will set the direction of our borough for the next four years, and given the precarious financial situation of Croydon Council, it is vital we are able to select an exceptional candidate who will win this election.
“We call on London Labour to:
- Provide a clear timeline for Croydon Labour CLPs being released from special measures, and set out the criteria which need to be met in order for that to happen;
- Should this release not be forthcoming within the next months, enable representatives
from each CLP to be involved in the timetabling and process of selecting candidates for
elections; - Request an update from the Metropolitan Police on their investigation into the 2024 Croydon East MP candidate selection process and commit to sharing the findings of this investigation with Croydon East members as soon as a report is made available to the Labour Party;
- Note the dissatisfaction of members within Croydon at the mayoral selection process and commit to providing meaningful engagement and a reasonable timeframe for members to elect a candidate in future selection processes which are governed by London Labour.”
That’s told ’em…
Read more: Labour admits serious breach of private data in Croydon East
Read more: #TheLabourFiles: MP Reed, Evans and the Croydon connection
Read more: Scotland Yard’s cyber crime unit investigating Croydon Labour
Read more: The Audit Report: ‘Tony Newman always has been a coward’
Read more: #PennReport: Croydon has been let down by political leaders
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Could this be the green shoots of activism as well as political milk teeth which could grow into a full set of political gnashers?
Couldn’t attend last night due to child care – quite why hybrid meetings (with the chat function enabled…) aren’t possible in the East when they were fine in Croydon South is a mystery. Surely not even someone as dumb at Newman would’ve shown his face (or even his avatar)?
That Croydon constituency Labour parties remain under special measures communicates a message to voters that Croydon Labour would likely want to move on from.
The implied message is that Croydon Labour have not changed and are not trusted by their own party to run their own affairs. That message is unhelpful as voters will ask themselves why they should trust Croydon Labour to run the council if Labour’s own party does not trust Croydon Labour on good governance.
I tend to agree with Andrew. The political limbo that is in situ at the moment does not help the CLPs, Labour Party members, the electorate and more importantly democracy itself. London Labour need to recommend/impose their own solution or it will be seen as incapable, incorrigible and incompetent by the local Labour Party members; sentiments which may resonate with older ex LP member activists.
And there you have it. An unelected party official controlling not just Croydon Labour but, if Rowenna Davis defeats Jason Perry, Croydon council too. That’s not democracy.
McSweeney is reported to have said that Miliband and Corbyn “saw Labour divorced from its key voters”, which is ironic given his antics with Starmer and the party’s lurch to the right. He should be deported
Whoever allowed a creature like Newman to come crawling back seems to be the part of the Labour Party with the most issue. It’s hard to rationalise why anyone would think that was a good idea. No consequence of action for someone who caused so much damage, whom the merest tiny association with can do nothing but damage for any Labour candidate. The most sensible course of action would be to do a u-turn and as quietly as possible give a lifetime ban.