With 13 of Labour’s 34 current councillors either deselected or standing down, the party has run out of volunteers for a thankless task.
WALTER CRONXITE, Political Editor, reports
An urgent appeal was sent out last night. “We are reopening nominations for members to put themselves forward to be Labour candidates in the upcoming 2026 local government elections,” read the email, signed by an unnamed “London Labour procedures secretary”.
The last-gasp appeal reflects the exodus of activists and members in the five years since Keir Starmer and David Evans took over the running of the party, as well as the growing sense of dissatisfaction among those who remain but are uneasy with the direction that Labour has been taking.
Faceless, anonymous regional party officials deselecting a handful of Croydon women councillors won’t have helped grassroots morale much, either.
Croydon Labour is only halfway through its selection process, which has been taken out of local hands and is being supervised by officials from the London region office and the National Executive Committee.
“Our initial round of applications and interviews has returned a strong pool of candidates and longlisted potential candidates,” the Labour email continued, not entirely convincingly.
‘Diverse’: Cllr Patsy Cummings was a London Assembly candidate in 2021. This time round, she’s one of those blocked from standing for selection
“To ensure that we can put forward a representative and diverse team of applicants to the ward members, and subsequently candidates to the electorate, we are inviting further applications.
“We welcome applicants from all backgrounds and experience, and we especially encourage women members to consider applying at this stage. All we ask is that you are willing to work hard as part of a team, play an active role in campaigning, and be committed to making a difference to the lives of your neighbours.”
This from the party hierarchy that blocked six sitting Labour councillors from being allowed to seek re-selection, five of them women, four of them black women.
Croydon Labour has so far announced the outcome of 15 ward selections, naming 42 candidates. These cover mostly what are regarded as “safe Labour” wards, plus Tory-held South Croydon and under-threat seats in Crystal Palace and Upper Norwood and Fairfield wards.
On May 7 2026, in addition to the borough-wide mayoral election, the Town Hall elections will be held across 28 wards for 70 council seats.
Labour won 34 council seats at the last local elections, in 2022. But with retirements as well as the deselections, 13 of the current Labour group at the Town Hall won’t be on the ballot next year. At least, not as candidates for the Labour Party.
Tough gig: in 2022, Labour won two council seats in this ward. In 2026, the LibDems are predicted to win all three
Labour, like the Tories and (when they can rustle up enough members) the LibDems, have a hard-and-fast policy of contesting every available seat in Croydon, even where they know they have no chance of electoral success.
For these 13 other wards, Croydon Labour (or their masters at the all-powerful NEC) therefore require at least 28 members to volunteer to be “paper candidates”.
These are candidates in name only, for wards in the south of the borough where there is little prospect of any real campaigning. It’s all a bit of smoke and mirrors by the political parties (the Tories do much the same in the north of Croydon), amounting to sham democracy.
Labour’s 28 paper candidates will be expected to work as unpaid leaflet-deliverers for Keir Starmer’s party, focusing on getting Rowenna Davis, the Waddon councillor, elected as Croydon Mayor.
The chosen one: Rowenna Davis is Labour’s candidate for Mayor
Last night’s appeal went out with a file-load of additional documents, including “Essential information”, “Councillor job description”, “Qualifications and disqualifications”, “How to apply” and even a “Code of conduct”.
Anyone wishing to put themselves forward for this hiding to nothing has only until midday on Monday to get all the documents read and their forms filled.
Labour’s even prepared to bend its own rules to help fill the blank spaces on its list of candidates.
Usually, to have any chance of being put forward for selection, even as a paper candidate, a member will need to have been on Labour’s books for at least 12 months.
Perhaps a sign of the desperation that has crept in and a lack of volunteers putting themselves forward, last night’s emergency appeal says: “In special circumstances, an exemption can be made to the membership length requirement.” Nod, nod. Wink, wink…
Inside Croydon spoke to several Labour contacts, asking them if they would be putting their names forward for this additional round of selections.
“No,” said one, with more than a suggestion of disgruntlement. “Why should I?”
Another said: “I have serious reservations with so much going on with Labour right now. I won’t even be volunteering to deliver any leaflets this time.”
And a third said: “I’ve already resigned from the party.”
In the pink: Cllrs Clark and Davis on the campaign trail in a rare photograph that appears to show Clark about to drink water
A current Labour member told Inside Croydon last week: “There’s a real dearth of people coming forward to be candidates next year… Once you take out half a dozen sitting councillors whose faces don’t fit, they’ve been forced to plug some holes.
“That’s why they asked Brigitte [Graham] to stay on in Woodside. That’s why they’ve dragged John Wentworth out of retirement.”
It’s been a quieter week as far as Labour ward selections are concerned, since Saturday’s Fairfield meeting went ahead with four candidates for three places. The not-much-liked Councillor Chris Clark was duly re-selected in the ward he has represented since 2018, alongside Cliff Colvin and Davina Brown.
Insiders say that at a poorly attended meeting, Clark garnered the least number of votes of the three chosen candidates. With Clark tied with Laila Mohammed for the third berth, a re-vote had to be held. Clark avoided deselection by Labour members in Fairfield by a single vote.
Clark had been denied the opportunity of going for selection in another, less at-risk ward. Fairfield has had two Green Party councillors since 2022.
Croydon’s local elections, including votes for 70 councillors, are due to be held on Thursday, May 7, 2026.
Read more: Local Labour members angry at ‘travesty’ of selection process
Read more: Labour councillor Clark is forced to seek re-election in Fairfield
Read more: #TheLabourFiles: MP Reed, Evans and the Croydon connection
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