Croydon (Parliament Politics Magazine) – Labour Party faces backlash after blocking members from questioning Croydon mayoral candidates Rowenna Davis and Manju Shahul-Hameed in a Zoom meeting.
Before members could cast their votes, this would be the only time the council members appeared in a party-sponsored event.
Labour members will not be able to ask the candidates direct questions during in-person selection meetings. In fact, during this online meeting hosted by representatives of Labour’s London region, neither Shahul-Hameed nor Davis allowed any members to pose any questions.
The Croydon Labour Party has been on the “naughty step” with their party nationwide since they were able to blow up the borough’s budget in 2020 and aren’t trusted to choose their own candidates or handle their own campaigns.
It’s not like London Labour has a clean sheet either; in 2023, when they were in charge of the parliamentary selection for Croydon East, they ended up triggering a Scotland Yard investigation into data theft, which is still ongoing, according to the Met.
Therefore, anyone interested in democracy, grassroots involvement, or simply accountability will find yesterday night’s charade of a selection hustings all the more unsettling.
With the “Outies” never being permitted to communicate with Labour’s “Innies,” it was all too much like a particularly dystopian episode of Severance.
Members did not ask questions; only a London Labour bureaucrat did. Members had no opportunity to engage with either candidate, there was no opportunity for the candidates to engage with one another, and there was no opportunity for follow-up inquiries.
Zoom’s chat feature had already been turned off by London Labour. There was no information on the number of people there or even how many Labour members bothered to attend these hustings.
Stuart King, the leader of the Labour group on the council, together with two ward councillor colleagues and MP Sarah Jones, didn’t even bother to postpone or cancel a community meeting with the police yesterday night, demonstrating the level of alienation and apathy in the selection process. Perhaps they are all already aware of the selection ballot’s outcome?
However, neither candidate was at fault for the manner in which the selections hustings non-meeting meeting was set up. It was a perfect illustration of Keir Starmer’s Labour Party’s top-down, members-cannot-be-trusted culture, which was firmly entrenched by his former general secretary David Evans.
Among the contenders, Rowenna Davis was eloquent, articulate, and able to mention her meeting with the mayor of Malmo, her endorsement by Andy Burnham of Greater Manchester, and her role as a guide for business leaders in the borough.
Despite her stumbles, hesitations, and lack of polish, Manju Shahul-Hameed was able to discuss her accomplishments and record as a cabinet member without explicitly indicating that she was a part of the cabinet of Council Leader Tony Newman, which resulted in the council’s first two Section 114 notices.
Aside from mentioning additional “affordable housing” and collaborating with housing associations, neither candidate brought up council housing in response to the housing problem.
Both made some shady or suspect statements (remember, no member was permitted to challenge them).
In order to get public transportation back to its pre-COVID levels, Davis pledged to collaborate with rail firms and Transport for London. That scarcely seems possible now that more individuals than ever are working from home.
She added that Croydon should take inspiration from Birmingham’s Washwood Heath Hub.
Wes Streeting has endorsed it, which may not be good enough for many grassroots Labour members. It is run privately by Operose Health, which was exposed by Panorama, so it is hardly a recommendation.
According to one Inside Croydon reader, “With Manju it looked like the script she was reading from was reflected in her glasses.”
Look at how wonderfully that has all worked out. Under Newman, Shahul-Hameed was in charge of the borough’s business as a cabinet member. Reading from her script, she pledged to create a Croydon Culture Fund, numerous resident panels, funding for voluntary organizations (she set up a charity in her own name), and bringing in companies that were leaders in digital care (though she never clarified what that meant).
These comprised a residents’ accountability panel, normal borough-wide panels, and connectivity panels. It was unclear exactly who would serve on these panels and how they would be selected and paid.
While Davis recalled that Croydon Labour was the one who declared a “climate emergency,” Shahul-Hameed said that the climate was “quite central, quite important.” Working with Croydon Community Energy was crucial, according to Davis.
When Davis called Labour “people on the left,” the London Labour apparatchik could have flinched.
However, Davis had no qualms about offending individuals. The Scrutiny Committee “had a poor reputation when I took over,” she subsequently stated. Sean Fitzsimmons, a Newman appointee, served as the previous chair.
They will never know if he attended the meeting or not. Fitzsimons might now be the campaign manager for Shahul-Hameed. She needs one, for crying out loud.
When assessing Croydon’s financial situation, Davis was succinct: “We need to get a deal with the central government on the debt.” Labour’s issue in Croydon may be that the Labour government agrees to such a deal before the May 2026 elections, giving Jason Perry, the incumbent Conservative mayor, a huge electoral advantage.
Reiterating the Fund Croydon Fairly campaign from 2023, Davis solidified her position as the front-runner to be on the ballot to succeed Perry in May of next year by declaring, “I will push for fair funding for outer London boroughs.”
The Labour bureaucrat said that members would have until noon on Monday, April 14, to cast their ballots, and that ballots would be dropped this Friday. It’s obvious that the flawed Anonyvoter technology will be used for the entire voting process, effectively disenfranchising Labour members who don’t have access to the internet or email.
Asking for explanation would have been beneficial, but nobody was able to communicate or post anything in the chat. Just the way Lord Evans of Penge and the Labour Party under Starmer like it.
After yet another evening squandered on Labour Party issues, one member said it was “all a bit underwhelming really.”
On Thursday, May 7, 2026, Croydon will have its local elections, which will include the borough’s second mayoral election as well as the election of 70 council members from 28 wards.
What are the details of this process?
On April 9, 2025, a virtual hustings was the only time members had the chance to hear from the candidates, councillors Rowenna Davis and Manju Shahul-Hameed. Zoom was used to invite members, however the format prevented face-to-face communication.
Members were unable to ask questions or follow up in real time since questions for the candidates had to be submitted beforehand.
The contentious Anonyvoter online method, which has been criticized in the past for its lack of openness, was used for the selection process. Due to claims of fraud during Labour’s selection of a parliamentary candidate for Croydon East, this procedure was already being questioned.
There were no in-person meetings where members may meet the candidates and ask them questions, in contrast to customary selection procedures.