The race to replace Harriet Harman as Labour’s parliamentary candidate for Peckham and Camberwell was fraught with controversy.
In November, Miatta Fahnbulleh was pronounced the winner, but only after a gruelling selection process, plagued with internal squabbles, exclusively reported by the News.
The race began in December 2021, when Harman announced plans to stand down at the next election after 40 years in the post.
Exclusive: Labour Party dismisses entire selection panel in row over Harriet Harman succession
A key party figure who held cabinet positions under Blair and Brown, and seen by many as a trailblazing feminist politician, replacing her was unlikely to be easy.
By September, hopeful candidates’ campaigns were well underway. Peter Babudu, Evelyn Akoto and Johnson Situ, all current or former Southwark councillors, threw their hats in the ring.
The other candidates were former number ten policy advisor and economist, Miatta Fahnbulleh and London Assembly member Marina Ahmad, plus former Lambeth Mayor Neeraj Patil.
Despite being touted as an early frontrunner, Corbynista and Wandsworth Councillor Maurice Mcleod was excluded from the long-list by the party hierarchy, even though he’d been backed by two unions.
Rye Lane’s Labour Councillor Chloe Tomlinson said the party elite “intended to… hand the seat” to a Keir Starmer favourite.
Maurice Mcleod’s bid to be Labour MP candidate for Camberwell and Peckham halted ‘by party’s right’
High-profile Labour Party politicians who had been prominent under Jeremy Corbyn, such as Diane Abbot and Dawn Butler, also slammed the decision. It was the first sign that internal party divisions could throw the selection process off-course.
The long-list of candidates had to be whittled down to a shortlist by a selection committee made up of local party members who leaned toward the party’s left.
They chose a shortlist of Evelyn Akoto, Miatta Fahnbulleh and Peter Babudu but party bosses were allegedly set on adding Johnson Situ to the list, seen by many as Starmer’s favourite.
This juice bar has thrived since the Elephant and Castle shopping centre demolition
A selection panel source said: “We chose a shortlist of three and the regional official and the National Executive Committee kept us in the meeting for two extra hours trying to argue for Johnson even after the decision had been made and we refused to budge.”
This paper reported the panel’s preferred three candidates and, in an astonishing development, the Labour Party dissolved its own select committee.
Discharged committee members were told the leak had been “a blatant attempt to undermine the process”.
On Saturday, November 19, following a hustings between the four candidates, party members voted for Fahnbulleh as their preferred candidate.
Miatta Fahnbulleh is set to be Labour candidate for Camberwell and Peckham
Fresh from her victory, she said: “I’m pretty overwhelmed. It was a massive show of support. I’m so proud and honoured to be selected – it’s an amazing community and the community I want to serve.
“I’m an economist. We need to change the economic system and that’s what I’ll spend the coming months striving to do for the people here.”
READ MORE – REVIEWS OF THE YEAR 2022 – below:
-
The Weirdest News Stories
-
Killings in 2022
-
The Most Shocking Stories
-
The Funniest Headlines
-
How we covered Her Majesty’s passing
-
We look back at the people taken from us in 2022
-
How locals responded to the cost-of-living crisis
-
How we stood with Ukraine
-
Labour tightened its hold in the local elections
-
Southwark Soapbox hit the screen
-
Neil Coyle’s suspension from the Labour Party
-
Mass strike action
-
Winning the war against the bus cuts
-
Primary schools faced closure and the battle to stay afloat continues