Labour has confirmed a ‘long list’ of candidates for the Lewisham East by-election triggered by the departure of Heidi Alexander to the London mayor’s office. All the long-listed candidates are women:
Claudia Webbe
Ms Webbe, who currently sits on Labour’s NEC, has a strong record of service to the party and the left in various roles and is considered highly capable. She would have to vacate her NEC seat if she succeeds in becoming an MP.
Janet Daby
Ms Daby is a local councillor and Lewisham’s deputy mayor. She is one of four candidates a local Labour First representative supported on Twitter this morning, which means she is unlikely to be a candidate that supporters of the party leadership will want to get behind.
Sakina Sheikh
Ms Sheikh is a local councillor elected last week, who put in a good performance on Sky after the local elections in spite of the interruptions of the male host and guest. She is considered another pro-Corbyn candidate, but has made efforts to win over moderates.
Abena Oppong-Asare
Ms Oppong-Asare is a former councillor and former deputy council leader. Like Janet Davy, she is one of four candidates supportively mentioned in a tweet by a local Labour First figure this morning and is on the executive of the Labour Women’s Network, which is generally considered right-leaning by left Labour members.
Rachel Onikosi
Ms Onikosi is a former Lewisham councillor and also one of the four names supported in a tweet by a senior local Labour First figure this morning.
Mendora Ogbogbo
Ms Ogbogbo runs Parli-Training, which according to her Linkedin profile is “a strategic public affairs and communications training company” providing “professional insight and institutional guidance on how to communicate effectively to politicians and policy makers.”
Her Twitter feed has been inactive for over a year.
Brenda Dacres
Ms Dacres came third in the recent contest for the selection of Labour’s candidate for Lewisham mayor. She is one of the four supported in the tweet by a leading Labour First representative in Lewisham and supported Owen Smith in the 2016 Labour leadership election.
Marina Ahmad
Ms Ahmad is Chair of Beckenham Labour and a councillor for Crystal Palace and Anerley. She stood as a candidate for the London Assembly in 2016 and told the Croydon Citizen at the time that she “can be a rottweiler when necessary“.
The short-list of three candidates will be finalised soon by Labour’s National Executive Committee.
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Ms. Sheikh would be a good choice. Incidentally what happened to Lady Phyll
Claudia for the win.
Best of luck to Claudia and Shakina.
Must not be a choice that gives Izzard an entree on to the NEC!
Not being funny, but where’s the white candidate – left or right?
I don’t know Lewisham, perhaps the majority of residents are black females, thus making the longlist an entirely representative one.
wlbcarepants
The information you are speculating about is extremely easy to find.
http://www.lewishamjsna.org.uk/a-profile-of-lewisham/social-and-environmental-context/ethnicity