Labour party members in the south London constituency of Lewisham East are protesting furiously that the byelection caused by the resignation of the MP Heidi Alexander is likely to be held in just five weeks’ time.

They accuse the party’s national executive of rushing through the process to prevent the local party having a voice, with the candidate to be shortlisted and selected in just six days.

The Lewisham East CLP chair, Ian McKenzie, emailed members calling on them to protest against the speed of the process.

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The national executive committee (NEC) always selects byelection candidates, but Lewisham East is a plum seat with a solid 21,000 majority.

Several people have already let it be known they are interested, but there are indications that Labour HQ would like to see an all-female shortlist and is likely to favour at least a majority of BAME candidates in a constituency where nearly half the voters are minority ethnic.



Claudia Webbe, an NEC member and former adviser to Ken Livingstone, is among five candidates who have declared intentions to stand.

Webbe, a Corbyn loyalist and former chair of the Met’s Operation Trident which tackled gang crime, said the Labour leader had “inspired a movement for change” and said she was “interested in building a viable, modern and dynamic democratic socialist party that can deliver real change in Britain in government and finally crush the neoliberal consensus”.

Joe Dromey, a Lewisham councillor who is the son of the Labour MPs Harriet Harman and Jack Dromey, has announced he intends to compete for the seat. Dromey, who works at the Institute for Public Policy Research thinktank, said he was a passionate pro-European and would continue Alexander’s work fighting against a hard Brexit on behalf of the vast majority of residents who voted remain.

Brenda Dacres, a former Lewisham mayoral hopeful, also declared her intention to stand, saying she had been inspired to do so by the Windrush scandal. “It was Amber Rudd and Theresa May’s unforgivable assault on hardworking British Caribbeans that sparked me to action, as a Windrush daughter,” she said.

The newly elected Lewisham councillor Sakina Sheikh will stand on a leftwing platform, while her fellow councillor, Kevin Bonavia, has formally declared his candidacy. Bonavia, who is aligned with the party’s centrists, is the council’s cabinet member for resources and refugees and said members should have a wide choice of potential candidates.

Bonavia said he had moved to Lewisham as a child from Malta. “Now I worry that the welcome and support given to me when my family came to this country will be denied to so many others,” he said, promising to defend the rights of EU citizens and refugees.



Phyll Opoku-Gyimah, a PCS union official, is also thought to be in the frame.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Sakina Sheikh is being described as the frontrunner to become Labour’s candidate. Photograph: Sakina Sheikh

Nominations are scheduled to close on Sunday morning and later that day a longlist will be selected. That will be whittled down to a shortlist of three on Monday afternoon from which Lewisham constituency Labour party will be invited to choose the candidate on Wednesday evening.

“The executive committee thinks that the shortlist should be developed locally and members should have more than six days’ notice of the most important decision this seat will make for a generation,” McKenzie’s letter says.

Alexander only announced her decision to stand down on Tuesday in order to become deputy London mayor responsible for transport. She resigned formally as an MP on Wednesday night, and Labour is expected to move the writ for the byelection on Thursday. It is thought it will be held on 14 June.

The likely explanation for the haste is that there will be key votes in parliament later in June, although that is far from certain.

Votes on the EU withdrawal bill could come before that. Others, on a customs union for example, are not expected until after the summer recess, and possibly not until October or November.

Some activists are protesting that the Corbyn leadership had pledged to improve internal democracy and give local party members more say.

Richard Angell, the director of Progress, Labour’s centre-left movement, said: “It is treating one of the safest seats in the country as if it was a marginal … pathetic, really. Factional interest over public interest, and a shameful way to take advantage of local voters and bulldoze local party members. So much for party democracy.”