Croydon (Parliament Politics Magazine) – Labour rejected six councillors in Croydon, including four Black women, sparking criticism over diversity, transparency, and internal party processes.
The leaders of the national and local Labour Parties have prevented four more incumbent council members from being chosen to run again in the local elections scheduled for May of next year.
Sherwan Chowdhury (Broad Green), Alisa Flemming (Norbury Park), Eunice O’Dame (Bensham Manor ward), and Enid Mollyneaux (also Bensham Manor) are the council members that have been blocked.
They raise the total number of council members whose applications to run for the party in May 2026 have been denied to six. Earlier this week, Inside Croydon revealed that Patsy Cummings (of Crystal Palace and Upper Norwood) and Karen Jewitt (of Thornton Heath ward) had also been turned down.
Senior members of Croydon Labour destroyed the council’s finances in 2020, and the local party is still not trusted to run its own affairs. Croydon East, one of the borough’s constituency Labour parties, is still being investigated by the police for choosing a parliamentary candidate in 2023.
Councillor Jewitt posted the following comment on social media following Inside Croydon’s report of the initial Labour rejection:
“I am disappointed and very sad to say that I have not been selected by the Labour Party to represent Thornton Heath again in next year’s elections.”
“Obviously, I will still be active in my ward till next May. To represent my home ward has been the honour of my life. A huge thank you to all who have supported me.”
One iC reader posted a comment to this website:
“Karen Jewitt has served as a Thornton Heath councillor for several years and quite frankly is the most active of our three ward councillors! Whenever issues are reported to her, she takes them up and gets results! She knows our community well… I doubt if her replacement will be able to do half of what she does! I certainly won’t be voting for them!”
Another wrote:
“It’ll be interesting to see who London Labour deem to be better candidates than these two long-serving councillors.”
London Labour will be providing a fait accompli candidate short-list for each ward, where members will finally be allowed some say in who are to represent them in next year’s elections.
“I’ve known Karen for about 15 years and had dealings with her both personally and professionally. In all aspects, even when we disagreed, she has been utterly on the side of the community she represents. This is a massive loss to that community,”
said another iC reader.
One of the Newman Numpties that destroyed the council’s finances was Alisa Flemming. When the department failed an Ofsted inspection in 2017, Flemming was cabinet member in charge of children’s services. As a result, the council spent at least £30 million on hiring extra social workers and trying to keep children in council care safe.
Flemming was judged suitable to run as a Labour candidate in the local elections in 2022, despite her track record in office and her ties to the defunct Town Hall dictatorship. Flemming is no longer adequate for 2026.
Likewise, Eunice O’Dame, a first-term councilor. O’Dame was judged competent enough to run for the Labour Party’s parliamentary seat in the General Election last year, but in the unwinnable Kingston and Surbiton seats. She is unacceptable now. She was unable to save herself even by endorsing Labour mayoral candidate Rowenna Davis online.
The atypically lengthy list of rejections also demonstrates a lack of faith in Croydon Labour leader Stuart King’s judgment regarding his shadow cabinet colleagues and the present cadre of Labour councillors. King has appointed another first-term councilor, Enid Mollyneaux, to the shadow cabinet for community safety. However, Mollyneaux is not even qualified to be a council candidate, according to the anonymous and unaccountable NEC authorities.
Over 30 years have passed since Chowdhury was first elected to the council, but he hasn’t accomplished much. When a sudden vacancy arose in Broad Green, he clambered back onto the council after being deselected by party members in Norbury Park prior to the 2022 elections.
He won’t make it this time since the choices were made just after Inside Croydon released its yearly Toss-cars, which is our list of the Town Hall’s most indolent council members.
Chowdhury finished fourth in our Toss-cars in 2023 and second in 2024, but this year he finally took first position after official records revealed that he completed only three casework items through the council’s members inquiry system in 15 months.
Croydon’s second mayoral election and local elections, which will include votes for 70 council members, are scheduled for Thursday, May 7, 2026.
What impact might these rejections have on Labour’s local electoral prospects in Croydon?
The rejection of six sitting Labour councillors in Croydon, including four popular black women, may negatively impact Labour’s local electoral prospects by undermining the party’s grassroots strength, weakening community representation, and creating internal discord.
This move, decided by party officials rather than local members, risks alienating loyal voters who value long-serving and trusted councillors who have strong community ties.
It occurs against a backdrop of recent controversies and financial mismanagement by Croydon Labour, which has already dented public confidence and allowed Conservative gains in the area, as observed in previous elections where economic competence and leadership stability were key factors in voter decisions.