Labour’s shortlisted London Assembly candidates kick off selection campaigns

Contenders hoping to become Labour candidates for the London Assembly elections in May have been told that they can now start campaigning to be elected.

The London Labour regional office has contacted the hopefuls to inform them of the process and to distribute membership lists for their prospective seats.

In the correspondence, the Labour Party has stated that members will vote in a one-member-one-vote (OMOV) ballot between February 5th and 19th.

The situation is still unclear as to which voting system will be used for the selection race. Labour has previously used single transferable vote (STV) but only OMOV has been specified so far.

Update: It has now been confirmed that the party will use STV. Under this system, if no candidate received 50% of first preference votes, preferences are redistributed until a candidate gets over 50% of the vote.

A freeze date of September 26th, 2018, will be applied. Labour told shortlisted candidates that this is in accordance with national executive committee rules, which state that the “freeze date is six months before the formal start” of the process.

The selection to decide who would contest each constituency and London-wide seat began last year, but was postponed due to the snap general election and subsequent leadership contests.

Shortlists had been drawn up in October 2019, but the election of two of the candidates to parliament last month meant that they had to be reopened.

The election of Claudia Webbe as the Leicester East MP and Florence Eshalomi as the new MP for Vauxhall meant that the lists for the North East and Lambeth and Southwark constituencies were reopened.

The mayoral election will take place alongside votes for the London Assembly. Sadiq Khan is standing against Tory Shaun Bailey, Lib Dem Siobhan Benita, and ex-Conservative MP Rory Stewart who is standing as an independent.

Below is the full list of shortlisted candidates for each constituency and London-wide seat. 

Barnet and Camden

• Sagal Abdi-Wali
• Anne Clarke
• Faduma Hassan
• Miriam Mirwitch

Bexley and Bromley

• Stefano Borella
• Sunny Lambe

Brent and Harrow

• Aghileh Djafari Marbini
• Krupesh Hirani

Croydon and Sutton

• Patsy Cummings
• Rowenna Davis

Havering and Redbridge

• Andrew Achilleos
• Judith Garfield
• Angelina Leatherbarrow
• Bob Littlewood
• Vanisha Solanki

Lambeth and Southwark

• Marina Ahmad
• Taranjit Chana
• Shahina Jaffer
• Maurice McLeod

North East (Hackney, Islington and Waltham Forest)

• Sara Hyde
• Emine Ibrahim
• Sem Moema

South West (Hounslow, Kingston and Richmond)

• Candice Atterton
• Sandra Keen

West Central (Hammersmith & Fulham, Kensington & Chelsea and Westminster)

• Rita Begum
• Sophie Charman-Blower

London-wide list

• Marina Ahmad
• Elly Baker
• Tom Copley (withdrawn)
• Sem Moema
• Murad Qureshi
• Sakina Sheikh
• Preston Tabois
• Liam Young