Revealed: Labour’s Streatham MP selection shortlist

LabourList understands that the following candidates have been shortlisted for Labour’s Streatham parliamentary selection contest:

• Bell Ribeiro-Addy – Chief of staff and political advisor to Diane Abbott
• Marcia Cameron – Lambeth councillor
• Jennifer Brathwaite – Lambeth council deputy leader

One of the three candidates listed above will replace Chuka Umunna – now a Lib Dem planning to stand in The Cities of London and Westminster – as Labour’s candidate in Streatham, where the incumbent enjoys a huge majority of 26,285 votes.

The candidate that Corbynsceptics were planning to get behind, Windrush generation community activist and BAME officer Maxine James, has not been shortlisted. This will come as a disappointment to some local members, one of whom described the exclusion as a “travesty”, as they said Maxine James had “crossover appeal and commitment to Streatham”.

Jenny Brathwaite has experience of running as a Labour parliamentary candidate, having challenged Chris Philp in Croydon South in 2017 – and the Tory MP’s majority narrowed that year. Local councillors may be split between supporting Brathwaite and Marcia Cameron.

But despite being firmly in one faction, as the preferred candidate of Streatham Labour Left, the favourite to win the selection overall is Diane Abbott aide Bell Ribeiro-Addy. She is backed by Unite, Momentum, ASLEF, TSSA and BFAWU.