Fairness and respect: Jose Joseph, well-known stall-holder on Surrey Street market, has quit the Labour Party making allegations of racism in the selection process
Jose Joseph, the Surrey Street market stall-holder and one of the best-recognised faces on the local political scene, has quit the Labour Party, accusing it of “discrimination and toxic behaviour”.
In a brief statement shared with party colleagues, Joseph announced his resignation by saying that Labour “fails to treat members of ethnic communities with fairness and respect”.
Joseph’s farewell statement was mentioned at a meeting of the Croydon West constituency party on Thursday, but no specific reasoning has been given for the timing of his resignation.
It is six months since Joseph learned that he was blocked from being a Labour candidate in the 2026 Town Hall elections. Joseph has told friends and colleagues that he believes he has been the subject of an unfairly critical internal report written by local official, Julie Setchfield.
Setchfield, like Joseph, was an unsuccessful Fairfield candidate in 2022. But unlike Joseph, Setchfield, a vice-chair in Croydon West CLP and the Fairfield Labour branch secretary, has been selected for a safe Labour ward (notably turning her back on Fairfield).
Safer seat: Fairfield Labour official Julie Setchfield
Sources close to Joseph say that he was given no right to respond to the adverse official report about him, leaving him completely frozen out of Labour’s selection process ahead of May’s local elections.
Four years ago, when Joseph was approved as a Labour candidate, he came fifth in the poll in Fairfield ward (ahead of Setchfield), as the Green Party won its first seats on Croydon Council.
The market trader had been involved in a selection controversy in 2019, when the local party organiser, a paid Labour official, aided and abetted by ward councillor Chris Clark, fixed the process. This denied Joseph his place on the ballot paper, despite him topping a poll of local members, so that one of their mates could get on to the council. An internal party report in 2020 confirmed all allegations, and left Joseph with nothing more than a brief apology.
On Wednesday afternoon, in a Croydon Labour Party WhatsApp group, Joseph announced his resignation from the Labour Party.
“I want to say goodbye to the Labour Party,” he wrote.
“Over the last 15 years, I have spent my valuable time and money supporting the party. Unfortunately, instead of appreciation, I experienced discrimination and toxic behaviour.
“I no longer believe that Labour can build a better community when it fails to treat members of ethnic communities with fairness and respect. If a party cannot practice equality internally, how can it deliver equality in society?
“In my experience, the Croydon Labour Party operates without real democracy. The recent candidate selection showed this clearly.”
Approved candidate: ‘Thirsty’ Chris Clark, who was involved in the Fairfield selection stitch-up in 2019, will be standing again
When approached by Inside Croydon, a senior figure in Croydon Labour would only say that they would not comment on the status of individual members.
Since the then council leader Tony Newman and his Numpties crashed the council’s finances in 2020, Croydon Labour has effectively been in “special measures”, with the party nationally and regionally taking over the management of its affairs locally.
Five of those deselected are from black and minority ethnic backgrounds.
Four of those blocked from seeking reselection are black women.
Read more: Local Labour members angry at ‘travesty’ of selection process
Read more: Four black women among six councillors rejected by Labour
Read more: Fix! Internal Labour inquiry confirms selection stitch-up
Read more: #TheLabourFiles: MP Reed, Evans and the Croydon connection
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I hope he joins the Greens!
I wouldn’t blame him. Labour should have been biting his hand off to stand for them instead of doing everything to block him.
Better late than never, I suppose, but it does beg the question, why has it taken him so long? Hopefully Greener pastures?
Labour are just disgusting. Last week their kangaroo court barred Andy Burnham from standing as an MP, now we learn they stitched up Jose Joseph in much the same way. They do that to their own members, and treat the rest of us with even more contempt
Burnham is a Zionist who wants to privatise the NHS. You’re sure you want to vote for that?
Better to have his name on the ballot so you can choose not to vote for him than not have that choice because McSweeney says no.
Do you think Burnham gets his eyeliner from the same place as JD Vance?
Shocking.