Ribeiro-Addy is shunted aside for Reed’s political ambitions

WALTER CRONXITE, political editor, on the end of an era for Labour voters in Croydon North and Croydon Central, as David Evans and his party’s NEC hand-picks parliamentary candidates in south London

Croydon’s Labour MPs last night announced that they would be deserting their constituencies that they have represented, in one case for more than a decade, in order to stand in new, safe seats at the next General Election.

The moves have been derided by local Tories as “typical chicken run”, and by Labour activists as “a real kick in the teeth” and “cynical”.

The moves come in response to the parliamentary boundary changes which, using bits of other boroughs, have created a fourth Croydon constituency, all to be implemented ahead of the next General Election, which needs to be held before the end of December 2024.

The carefully choreographed announcements, by Steve Reed OBE and Sarah Jones, were made in emails to party members in their constituencies and came at around the same time that Bell Ribeiro-Addy, the MP for Streatham, was explaining how she was being shunted into standing for Labour in the revised Lambeth Central seat.

The moves appear to have been approved by the all-powerful National Executive Committee of the Labour Party, the General Secretary David Evans and with at least the knowledge of leader Keith Starmer, and have almost certainly been undertaken to preserve the parliamentary places for “Steve Weed” and Jones, both members of Labour’s Commons shadow team.

This game of south London musical seats is just the latest demonstration of the NEC hand-picking its parliamentary candidates, rather than allowing party members in the CLPs – Constituency Labour Parties – to choose who should represent them. Evans has been a long-time critic of CLPs and advocate for centralised control.

With veteran Peckham MP Harriet Harman standing down at the next election and London having two more seats under the Boundary Commissioners’ changes, one of which is in Croydon, the Labour leadership has, at least, avoided any wider displacement or unseating of current MPs, although in her letter Ribeiro-Addy made it quite clear she had been forced into making a move.

That’s because Reed, MP for Croydon North since November 2012, wants to stand in the new Streatham and Norbury constituency, which includes part of his current seat.

It also represents a homecoming of sorts for the former leader of Lambeth Council. Reed’s political ambitions were frustrated in 2008 when he was defeated in a selection contest for the then Streatham seat by Chuka Umunna, who became the area’s MP at the 2010 General Election.

Reed did not have to wait long, selected by a very narrow majority in a members’ vote for Croydon North after the death of the former Labour minister, Malcolm Wicks.

In his email last night to members of his CLP, Reed, who signs himself “Shadow Secretary of State for Justice and Shadow Lord Chancellor”, said, “I’m very sorry I can’t continue to represent every part of Croydon North in future…

“At the next election, I intend to be Labour’s candidate in the new Streatham and Norbury constituency. I live in Upper Norwood which is part of the constituency, and I used to live in Streatham where I was also council leader. The Labour Party will confirm arrangements for our candidate in the new Croydon West constituency.”

Sarah Jones has been MP for Croydon Central since 2017, when she defeated Tory Gavin Barwell at the General Election, having lost narrowly in 2015.

In 2019, buoyed by enthusiastic support from new activists drawn to Labour by the leadership of Jeremy Corbyn, Jones increased her majority.

But Central had always been a two-way marginal, and the boundary changes which will be brought forward at the next election for a new Croydon East seat make it even more so. The catastrophic antics of Jones’s party colleagues at Croydon Town Hall are likely to make the seat even more precarious for Labour.

So Jones is moving to the safer Croydon West and South Norwood (Electoral Calculus suggests it is 100per cent likely to be a Labour seat).

Jones, whose more personal email lacked Reed’s pomposity, addressing her CLP members as “Dear friend”, said that her move is “subject to the approval of the Labour Party’s National Executive Committee” – confirming the centralised control inherent in this reshuffle.

“It really has been the greatest privilege of my life to represent you as your MP for the last six years,” Jones wrote.

“I have always been the MP representing the centre of our town, as well as the wonderful communities across the constituency. Much of the campaigning work we have done on knife crime, housing, and fire safety has had a focus in the town centre…

“This was not an easy decision as it has been an honour to represent our constituency, but the status quo is not an option,” said Jones.

Around the same time that Reed and Jones were telling the party activists who had helped get them elected that they would be moving to pastures new(ish), so left-winger Ribeiro-Addy was passing on the news to members in Streatham that she was also being moved.

“Our current Streatham constituency will no longer exist at the next election. It has effectively been split in two and divided between the new Lambeth Central and Streatham and Norbury constituencies.”

In common with Reed and Jones, Ribeiro-Addy offered links to maps and stuff, too.

Her “farewell note” sounded greater reluctance than her parliamentary colleagues, as she added further confirmation that this was all an NEC-inspired stitch-up.

“I’ve been made aware that papers have been sent out to the NEC to indicate which MPs will represent the new seats… I wanted you to hear from me first, that whilst in an ideal world I would love to continue representing our area in its entirety, it has been decided [our italics] that I will stand as Labour’s candidate for the new ‘Lambeth Central’ seat…

“Standing in this particular seat also helps to avoid the time-consuming, distracting and occasionally unpleasant contests that can occur amongst Labour colleagues in these situations.”

Whatever could she mean?

The Boundary Commission will publish their final proposals in July, and new CLPs are to be formed after this autumn’s party conference.

In the borough’s fourth constituency, Croydon South, held by Conservative Government Minister Chris Philp and regarded as a Tory safe seat, Labour has already selected serial election loser Ben Taylor.

It will be after the new CLPs are formed that Labour’s selection contest for Croydon East will take place, with Newman Numpties who helped to bankrupt the council Manju Shahul-Hameed and Alisa Flemming both expected to pitch shamelessly to further their personal political ambitions (“God help us,” was the considered verdict on that from one senior party figure).

Lambeth councillor Olga Fitzroy, who was Labour’s candidate in Croydon South in 2019, is also understood to be interested.

Last night’s carefully managed, NEC-approved announcements were not well-received by increasingly disillusioned Labour activists.

“It’s a real kick in the teeth for members who broke their back to get Sarah elected twice,” one told Inside Croydon.

“Sarah senses defeat in the air but captains usually go down with a sinking ship, they don’t grab the first life raft available, abandoning their crew in the process.”

Another long-time activist told this website, “This will be seen as pretty cynical.

“Sarah has said in the past she intends to continue to stand in the area where she lives. That would mean Croydon East, as she lives in Shirley.

“Many will think that her real reason for switching is that Croydon West is a much better bet for Labour to win. Sarah has her eye on her career prospects.”

View the boundaries and wards for the new Croydon East constituency by clicking here

View the boundaries and wards for Croydon West and South Norwood by clicking here

View the boundaries and wards for the new Streatham and Norbury constituency by clicking here

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