Now Labour suspends selections in MP Steve Reed’s backyard

It is not just in Croydon where Keir Starmer’s party stands accused of acting unlawfully, as it faces a High Court challenge from a rejected candidate in Lambeth. By WALTER CRONXITE, Political Editor

The Labour Party in Lambeth has been forced to suspend its candidate selections for next May’s council elections after one veteran member issued a High Court legal challenge over the process.

It is just the latest local embarrassment for Steve Reed OBE, the MP for Streatham (and Croydon North, if he can be asked) and a member of Keir Starmer’s crisis-hit cabinet.

The selection suspensions follows a police investigation into Labour’s parliamentary selections in a neighbouring Croydon constituency, a shortage of candidates in Croydon for the 2026 Town Hall elections, and the defection to the Green Party last week of a councillor in Reed’s own Streatham constituency.

Brixton Buzz is reporting this morning that Mark Sheiham, an official in Labour’s Clapham Common branch, claims that the party has acted unlawfully when it rejected his application to be a candidate next May.

As well as being a Labour branch treasurer, Sheiham is also a retired lawyer, so has a decent grasp of these matters.

Sheiham says that his application was rejected after his panelling interview in May, when he was told, “The panel decided he lacked an understanding of the role of councillor and could not ‘work constructively with people’.”

Sheiham has described the decision as “perverse”, and says that the panel effectively penalised him for being the victim of “bullying” within the party.

Sheiham’s claim to the High Court states: “The conclusion that Sheiham could not work constructively with people as a result of his response to bullying involves the endorsement of that bullying conduct.”

Sheiham has brought his lawsuit against Hollie Ridley, Labour’s General Secretary.

Sheiham argues he “remains entitled to a lawful determination of his application” and is asking the court to order Labour to reconvene an assessment team to restart the process.

As a consequence of the legal challenge, Labour has suspended its candidate selection process for 2026.

Brixton Buzz has obtained an email to prospective candidates which offers an update on “a significant development” in the selection process. So it’s not as if they are trying to play down their party’s latest clusterfuck.

The email states: “The Labour Party governance and legal team has directed Lambeth LGC [Local Government Committee, the equivalent of the Local Campaign Forum] to delay shortlisting and selection meetings until further notice.”

The note to candidates includes a comical little admission: “We apologise for taking a little while to let you know formally. We didn’t want to rush in without full information and have been waiting for confirmation that this means all meetings, shortlisting and selections and, yes, I’m afraid it does.” The emphasis is the email author’s.

This latest delay in Lambeth Labour selections, with elections now just eight months away, follows a previous hiatus earlier in the year.

Lambeth council has 63 councillor seats due to be elected on May 7, 2026. Labour currently holds 55 of them. Lambeth has been controlled by Labour since 2006, when Reed was council leader. Reed became MP for Croydon North in 2012, and for Streatham and Croydon North in 2024 after boundary changes allowed him back on to his old stomping grounds.

In Croydon, the local Labour Party is having its selection process micro-managed by the NEC – the National Executive Committee – and officials from London region. Inside Croydon reported last month how, with 13 of Labour’s 34 current Croydon councillors either deselected or standing down, the party had run out of willing volunteers to put themselves forward, even as “paper candidates” in notionally unwinnable wards.

Labour seems incapable of staunching the loss of members, and of councillors. Last week, Martin Abrams – elected for Labour in 2022 – joined the Green Party.

Abrams is the second Lambeth Labour councillor to make the switch to the Greens over the party’s complicit stance on Israel’s genocide in Gaza.

Sonia Winfred, a former cabinet member at Brixton Town Hall, quit as a councillor last year after she was suspended by Labour for supporting a council motion calling for a ceasefire in Gaza. Yes, you read that correctly – for voting in favour of peace.

Abrams, a councillor for a ward in Reed’s parliamentary constituency, voted for the same motion and was also suspended. He did not resign his council seat, but last month he quit Labour and last week he was greeted on the steps of Brixton Town Hall by the Greens’ new national party leader, Zack Polanski.

Abrams’ move makes the Greens, with four council seats, the official opposition on Lambeth Council. The LibDems have three seats.

Standing alongside his party leader, Abrams said that he is “absolutely thrilled” to be a part of a party “that unashamedly stands up for the most vulnerable in society” and “unashamedly calls a genocide a genocide”.

With Labour in governemtn at Westminster, Abrams said, “There is simply no excuse any longer for any kind of austerity, any cuts to public services.

“We need to have a party that puts the people of Lambeth first.”

Local elections, in Croydon, Lambeth and all other London boroughs are due to be held on Thursday, May 7, 2026.

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