Uncharacteristic ‘openness’ from the Labour Party exposes their latest sham selection process, with candidates for next year’s local elections being named without grassroots members in most wards getting any say at all.
EXCLUSIVE by STEVEN DOWNES
The fix is in: Croydon Labour announced this and eight other ward selections last night, with local members largely removed from the process
The fix is in.
After stubborn silence for months from the Labour Party on the matter of their candidate selections for next year’s local elections in Croydon, last night they used social media to issue a blitz announcement of their candidate selections in nine of the safest Labour wards in the borough.
In the majority of cases, the selections appear to have been made with minimal, if any, involvement of grassroots Labour members.
As one angry, disenfranchised Croydon Labour member shared on a WhatsApp group in a ward where the three candidates “selected” was neatly stitched up by the all-powerful NEC and Labour’s London region, “Rowenna Davis: If you want to be Mayor of Croydon, you need to stop this travesty.”
And they also appealed to Croydon West MP, Sarah Jones: “Take action for justice and for democracy.”
Four of those blocked from seeking reselection are black women. Five of the six represent wards which can be considered “safe Labour” areas.
The blocked councillors are Eunice O’Dame (Bensham Manor ward), Enid Mollyneaux (also Bensham Manor), Sherwan Chowdhury (Broad Green), Alisa Flemming (Norbury Park), and Karen Jewitt (Thornton Heath), as well as Patsy Cummings in Crystal Palace and Upper Norwood, a ward where Labour’s grip on power appears to be slipping.
And so, combined with several “big beast” retirements from the Town Hall, having created the vacancies the NEC/London region then delivered up fantasy shortlists, seemingly deliberately laid out to ensure that, wherever possible, the “selection” was a foregone conclusion, with not enough candidates to require the staging of a members’ meeting.
Councillor candidate: Rowenna Davis has been named as standing in Waddon ward, despite being Labour’s candidate for Mayor
That Labour is running its bogus selection process in August, at the height of the holiday season, only underlines what a sham the whole thing is: even some of the candidates for selection are away with their bucket and spades, and would have been unable to make a case for their selection at any meeting of members in the ward which we are led to believe they wish to serve.
Ordinary Labour members across the borough have been receiving emails from an official at London region, advising them that there’s no reason for them to turn up for their short-notice selection meetings.
“Your selection meeting was scheduled for…,” the email begins, giving a date.
“This is following an interview and assessment process by NEC/REC [regional executive] members with successful applicants being placed on a longlist. The NEC subsequently shortlisted people from that longlist to enable wards to host independent selection meetings.”
That’s a nice, Orwellian touch: “to enable wards to host independent selection meetings“, when the whole process has been rigged to avoid such “independent selection meetings”.
The official’s email then lists the shortlisted candidates for the particular branch.
“Because…,” the official then names a couple of the approved names on that shortlist, “… have been selected in other wards, the remaining number of people on the shortlist are equivalent to the amount of vacancies.
“This means that the remaining people on the shortlist are now selected as candidates and there is no longer a need to have a selection meeting.”
As one disgruntled Labour member put it: “How very convenient.”
Just to rub in the fait accompli nature of the whole charade, the Labour regional official then names the candidates for the ward who have never been selected by local members.
“These are your local Labour representatives as we head for the 2026 elections, and they need you to get behind them wholeheartedly,” the members are ordered.
And so, between 6.37pm and 8.40pm on a Friday night, someone at Croydon Labour HQ was busy pushing out specially designed, approved graphics, one each for South Norwood, West Thornton, Woodside, Bensham Manor, Selhurst, Waddon, Norbury and Pollards Hill, Norbury Park and Addiscombe East wards.
Keeping to the script: Croydon Labour confirmed nine ward selections in one night
Each one declared “Congratulations” to various named re-selected councillors or newly selected wannabe councillors.
Every tweet carried the endorsement of Rowenna Davis, with her “People first” slogan, as part of her campaign to be Croydon’s next elected Mayor.
“They will continue to work hard for our community and put the people of…”, with the name of the relevant ward inserted, “…first,” was the very on-message message to accompany each announcement.
A total of 23 candidates were named in this uncharacteristic flurry of openness from the Labour Party. Inside Croydon has had no answer to its question about how many of these wards, or branches, had actually held a selection meeting, allowing grassroots party members to have a say in who it is who will represent them in next May’s elections.
A reasonable assumption would be very few, if any at all.
Because while Davis and the Labour Party will be expecting Croydon voters to put their trust in them on polling day next year, Labour still doesn’t trust its own members, five years after putting Croydon Labour into “special measures”.
Unsurprisingly, after previous selection stitch-ups and fixes in Croydon Labour going back a decade or more, Labour members are furious.
“This is a new low in the Croydon Labour Party, even lower than those who bankrupted the council,” one member has said in an open messages intended for the party’s local leadership.
“Don’t take the members for granted.
“You may get away with the fake selection process next week, but the real election is in May 2026,” they warned.
Another Labour member has branded the selection stitch-up as “an utter disgrace.”
The 23 candidates named by the Labour Party last night to stand in next May’s Croydon local elections are (*indicates current councillor):
Safer seat: Julie Setchfield
Norbury Park: Julie Setchfield and Appu Srinivasan*.
Setchfield, a vice chair in Croydon West CLP and Fairfield branch secretary, was a losing candidate in Fairfield in 2022. This suggests that even Labour insiders think they won’t be regaining that ward from the Greens. Setchfield takes the place of the deselcted Alisa Flemming.
Mrs Anonyvoter: Maddie Henson
Addiscombe East: Chris Galpin and Maddie Henson*.
Tory council cabinet member Jeet Bains holds one of the two council seats in this ward. But it could be a Labour gain in 2026 if Reform take away enough votes from the Conservatives. Sitting councillor Henson is better known as “Mrs Anonyvoter”, a director of the firm that has provided the widely distrusted voting system to the Labour Party, and which remains subject of a Scotland Yard investigation into election fraud in Croydon East.
Norbury and Pollards Hill: Leila Ben-Hassel* and John Wentworth.
Old mates: John Wentworth (left) with MP Steve Reed
This represents a comeback to Croydon Town Hall politics after an eight-year absence for local Labour enforcer Wentworth. Wentworth is known to be close to Steve Reed, the MP for Streatham (and Croydon North when he can be bothered), having been his election agent at at least two General Elections. Wentworth stood down as a councillor in 2018. Notably, he has not sought to seek election in his old stomping ground of Crystal Palace and Upper Norwood, where the LibDems are hoping to scoop all three seats in 2026.
Wentworth replaces one-term councillor Matt Griffiths, who is not seeking re-election.
Waddon: Sam Attwater, Rowenna Davis* and Ellily Ponnuthurai*.
Safely selected: Sam Attwater (right) with Davis (left), Ponnuthurai and Stuart King, the leader of the Labour group at the Town Hall
Attwater could become Croydon’s youngest councillor next May, as without the distraction of Andrew Pelling as an independent candidate, Labour should regain all three seats in this ward. Attwater is a Waddon resident who has just graduated from his degree course at Manchester University, is described by one local as “a 21-year-old white male with no real-world experience, but a capable deliverer of Labour leaflets”. Waddon is among the wards which had its selection meeting cancelled when their approved candidates were reduced to just the required three.
As Jason Perry did in 2022, mayoral candidate Davis is on the ballot paper as a councillor candidate as well, just in case…
Selhurst: Mohammed Islam* and Catherine Wilson*.
No change. For a change.
Bensham Manor: Humayun Kabir*, Mohana Manoharan and Ellie Sandover.
Manoharan and Sandover come in to the places vacated by the blocked Enid Mollyneux and Eunice O’Dame. Sandover’s name appeared on the shortlists of more than one ward, her selection here helping to render members’ meetings elsewhere unnecessary.
MP’s aide: Cllr Amy Foster
Woodside: Amy Foster* Brigitte Graham* and Jess Hammersley-Rich*.
Again, no change, although only because first-term councillor Graham appears to have been persuaded to stay on the ballot paper after previously wavering over the pressures of public duties against her family responsibilities. Foster works in the parliamentary office of Croydon East MP Natasha Irons, and is one of Croydon Labour’s better performers in the Town Hall Chamber.
West Thornton: Janet Campbell*, Stuart King* and Chrishni Reshekaron*.
No change, all heavy-hitters, with current Labour group leader King, Campbell, his deputy, and cabinet member Reshekaron.
Favoured one: Melanie Felton
South Norwood: Melanie Felton, Chris Herman* and Stella Nabukeera*.
Melanie Felton is among the “chosen ones” of local activists, a keen deliverer of leaflets and much-favoured by senior Labour figures. She was Labour’s losing candidate last year in the Park Hill and Whitgift by-election, when selected from “the shortest of shortlists”. She takes the place on the ballot paper of Louis Carserides, another short-stay councillor who is standing down in 2026.
As one well-placed local source said this morning: “I have little doubt there are shenanigans going on. Why else would they be announcing so many selections at once, when the usual process sees selection results announced in dribs and drabs – if at all – over a period of several weeks?”
Croydon’s local elections, including votes for 70 councillors, are due to be held on Thursday, May 7, 2026, alongside the borough’s second mayoral election.
Read more: Four black women among six councillors rejected by Labour
Read more: Labour deputy leaders Young and Collins to stand down in 2026
Read more: Fix! Internal Labour inquiry confirms selection stitch-up
Read more: #TheLabourFiles: MP Reed, Evans and the Croydon connection
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