The council elections are little more than 10 months away, but suspicions of selection stitch-ups are already circulating among Croydon Labour’s members. By WALTER CRONXITE, Political Editor
Tactless or cynical: Croydon Labour councillor Chrishni Reshekaron (centre) with the Labour Friends of Israel banner
Between now and next May, we can all confidently expect to receive a series of leaflets, get knocks on the door and have banal social media messages thrust our way in which Croydon’s Labour Party will ask the borough’s voters to place their trust in them at the 2026 local elections.
Yet the Labour Party itself still won’t trust Croydon Labour to manage its own affairs, as they struggle to find 70 members prepared to let their names go forward on to ballot papers for the possibility of becoming a councillor for the next four years.
The closing date for applications for selection as a Labour council election candidate was last Friday. But members in some wards around the borough are increasingly suspicious that they will be denied a proper say in who gets to stand for their local party, which has effectively been in “special measures” with Labour since they crashed the Town Hall finances in 2020.
Shortlisting candidates for most of Croydon’s 28 wards is a function which under normal circumstances would be conducted by small meetings of grassroots members, providing at least the appearance of some kind of local democratic process.
But this year in Croydon, the members won’t do the shortlisting: the all-powerful NEC will do it for them.
In West Thornton ward, where there is a significant number of Muslim Labour members, concerns have been raised over how one of their councillors, Chrishni Reshekaron, has been seen offering support to Labour Friends of Israel – and how the NEC-run shortlisting could be used to prevent her possible deselection.
Originally an organisation for Labour MPs, Labour Friends of Israel’s members have included Tony Blair and now include Keir Starmer. But it has been subject to investigations in recent years for its close links with Israeli Embassy staff, possible funding from the Israeli government and involvement in “plots” to bring down British MPs who favour recognition of a Palestinian state.
Campaign buddies: Reshekaron (left) with Labour’s mayoral candidate, Rowenna Davis
Labour Friends of Israel never discloses who its funders are.
None of Croydon’s three Labour MPs – Steve Reed OBE, Sarah Jones or Natasha Irons – appear in lists of members of LFI, although Reed is among several members of Starmer’s cabinet to have received donations from pro-Israel lobbyists, the most notable being millionaire Trevor Chinn.
Councillor Reshekaron has represented West Thornton ward since 2022. In February this year, she was photographed at Labour’s Local Government Conference posing with a Labour Friends of Israel banner.
Other councillors’ membership or support for Labour Friends of Israel is not known. It is not something that has to be declared by councillors among their interests on the council website.
Shadow cabinet member Christopher Herman, a councillor for South Norwood, had a spell working for Labour Friends of Israel. Perhaps mindful of the sensitivities on the matter, Herman has annotated his online profile with an asterisk: “Three-week internship”.
Several party members in Reshekaron’s ward have expressed their disquiet over her apparent support for Israel at a time when tens of thousands of Palestinians have been killed or displaced from their homes in Gaza, and are now being left to starve, in what independent, international agencies have described as war crimes and genocide.
“At best, the councillor’s action was tactless,” a senior local Labour figure told Inside Croydon. “At worst, it was a cynical ploy to appeal to some of the party’s powerbrokers.”
Although a first-term councillor, within days of being elected in 2022, Reshekaron was propelled into the key council shadow cabinet position for homes under her group leader, and ward colleague, Stuart King.
Reshekaron, who works for the charity Refuge, is known to be politically very ambitious, perhaps in pursuit of a safe Labour parliamentary seat (if any such thing might still exist in these turbulent times). She was imposed on Labour members in Sutton and Cheam as their candidate in last year’s General Election, where she made little impression on the electorate in a Tory-LibDem contest.
Reshekaron is also thought to be a close colleague of Waddon councillor Rowenna Davis, Labour’s candidate for Mayor in 2026.
A source who described themselves as “close to Reshekaron” told Inside Croydon: “Chrishni is good enough to succeed in politics without having to abandon her principles and values. It beggars belief that anybody would want to be friends with a genocidal, apartheid regime whose prime minister is a wanted war criminal.
“Chrishni really does need to choose her friends more carefully.”
A Labour member in West Thornton told Inside Croydon: “We’d like the opportunity to choose who represents our ward at the Town Hall. And Chrisni isn’t it.
“We are suspicious of the NEC, though, and we reckon there might be some kind of stitch-up.”
Ward members will get to vote on the approved shortlists presented by the NEC. “They could just present a fait accompli: three candidates for the three available places.”
Councillor Reshekaron was approached by Inside Croydon to clarify her position around Labour Friends of Israel. She did not respond by the time of publication.
Read more: Minister Reed attended unminuted meetings with water bosses
Read more: Boycotts and resignations in rows over Labour selections
Read more: ‘I don’t think it’s helpful you ask questions like this’
Read more: #TheLabourFiles: MP Reed, Evans and the Croydon connection
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I never quite understand how a regional conflict thousands of miles away has such an impact on local politics.
Because it is a reflection of character.
If you won’t call out war criminals who are breaking international law on the nightly news, how can you be trusted to do what’s right on Croydon Council?
If you won’t even stand up for people suffering a genocide, how can you be trusted to stand up for Croydon residents?
If you think looking good to your bosses is more important than doing what your voters want, then you don’t deserve anyone’s vote.
Well said, Peter.
It’s not a matter of character, it’s a matter of relevance.
‘Bribe’? Does that serious allegation apply just to the Labour Friends of Israel, or to any lobby group?
Try posting your replies under the comments you are responding to. Everyone else seems to manage
OK
Pretty relevant when we are sending them money and arms, and making the middle east and the whole world less safe as a result. The world is inter-connected, and though we are insulated, the chaos does reach our shores. It’s also a moral imperative and responsibility to not actively support genocide, both under international law and good conscience. Actually, under international law, states are obligated to PREVENT genocide – so we have already fell afoul of that.
Look at it the other way round Tim. Our money is being used to help heavily armed troops bomb and shoot people who are being starved on purpose https://insidecroydon.com/2025/06/23/labour-councillors-do-a-runner-over-investments-in-israeli-arms/
Ask the Chair of the Pensions Committee – why is Croydon Council (Pension Fund) invested in Pro-Genocidal Israeli companies?
Why is the candidate being embraced by LFI? and vice-versa showcasing their credentials as a lap dog of LFI?
What has LFI got to do with Croydon Council?
“LFI – Working towards a two-state solution” says the poster held by the person on Reshnekaron’s left , which like tomorrow, never comes. Labour Fiends (sic) of Israel are not naïve, they just think we’re stupid and will swallow whatever propaganda they pass on from Netanyahu’s Likud party.
The LFI website’s references to genocide are only in the context of denials that it is happening.
They condemn Hamas terrorism while ignoring the fact that the Israeli government actively supported that movement for decades, in order to undermine the Palestinian struggle for autonomy. That’s not conspiracy theory nonsense, it was well documented by the Wall Street Journal in 2009, quoting an Israeli government official https://archive.is/SWhNN
Their current focus is on the war on Iran, ostensibly an effort to stop that country acquiring nuclear weapons. The irony that the USA, UK and Israel are all themselves armed with these weapons of mass destruction, on the basis of deterrence, is lost on them.
When two Labour MPs, Abtisam Mohamed and Yuan Yang, were denied entry to Israel to see for themselves what is going on in the West Bank where Palestinians are under attack, LFI weakly bleated that “it’s wrong and counterproductive for Israel to refuse entry to British Members of Parliament.”
With friends like that, who needs enemies?
LFI is nothing but a front of the GENOCIDAL government of Israel, masqueraded via direct patronage of Israeli embassy in London.
Any current/future Labour MP must now plegde its allegiance to LFI to be considered for any serious position. Same goes for Labour Councillor(s) who must now intern at LFI to stay the right side of NEC!
This is a sham no different to AIPAC in the USA!
I understand there are a number of Labour MPs who are members of Friends of Israel including Rachel Reeves who according to her wiki page is co-chair of the group. Very unfortunate considering the continued bombing Israel has inflicted on Gaza. Even worse if the group can influence which candidates are able to run in elections.
This is a DISGRACE.
So, it is now a mandatory prerequisite to pledge allegiance to a GENOCIDAL entity via their camouflaged “Sayanim”. The veneer is peeled off by this brilliant and timely article.
This is NOT democracy. This is an undesirable autocracy that is burdened on the Labour comrades of Croydon. This shameless wanna-be-future-safe-seat MP (Chrishni Reshekaron) reminds me of yet another pro-Zionist, genocidal advocate called SSS…NOTSObraverman.
It appears that in order to be on Labour’s selection ballot, one has to pledge (JC exposed it previously) their loyalty to the GENOCIDAL Psychopaths from Israel.
This has really permeated at local government level and I will NOT accept a central party pro-Genocide candidate re-imposed on a ward that has overwhelming voiced its displeasure against the on-going GENOCIDE in Gaza.
We will mount a challenge, protest, fund-raise, create a grass-root awareness campaign, if this incompetant PRO-GENOCIDE candidate is re-imposed on the unsuspecting mortals of Croydon. The residents of West Thornton Ward ought to be briefed on this candidate (if imposed) and come the election, I pledge to make my personal mission to expose this parasite. The grass level awareness will be like never before (as Trump may say)!
No more, using our shoulders to further their political ambitions. We deservedly need a candidate that represents the community’s views, is sensitive to our feelings and understands the core issues in Croydon. Not someone with ambitions to arse-lick their way to ingratiate oneself in LFI’s good books in hope of becoming a safe seat future MP. Why would someone go out of their way for a councillor selection to showcase their allegiance for LFI when they ought to be concerned about local issues. Apart from Croydon’s Pension investment allocation for Israeli pro-GENOCIDAL companies, what other business a councillor would have to qualify for this glaring beaming for LFI? Who is the intended beneficiary to showcase this picture to?
The central labour party ? NEC can eff off. Be warned, they will have a battle (and a losing councillor) if they go ahead with their GENOCIDE-LOVING preffered candidate.
Pure corruption. These MPs should not be bought like donkeys. LFI and CFI are lobbyists groups who bribe politicians to support Israel’s cause, such as the genocide in Palestine and bombing of 5 different countries. You have seen how AIPAC has taken over both sides of the American government.