In what is shaping up to be an unprecedented election, candidate lists for all 25 wards have now been officially published

Ballot box (credit Element5 Digital on Unsplash)

Candidates standing for election to Enfield Council next month have now been confirmed – with five parties fighting across all 25 wards.

The statement of nominations published on the council’s website late last week shows that alongside the traditional mainstream parties of Labour, the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats, Reform UK will be standing a full slate of 63 candidates for the first time – a huge rise from the three who stood for the right-wing party at the last local election in 2022.

Also standing in every ward will be the Green Party, with 50 candidates in total, up from 45 at the last election.

Enfield Community Independents (ECI), a new local left-wing party closely aligned to Jeremy Corbyn’s Your Party nationally, will be standing 17 candidates across eight wards, mainly concentrated around Edmonton.

However, ECI has formed an electoral pact with the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition, which is itself standing ten candidates across the same number of wards – with the two groups collectively standing in 17 wards.

The only other political party standing in Enfield is the Christian People’s Alliance, which has one candidate in Enfield Lock, while there are three independent candidates across the borough who have no party affiliations.

In Enfield, voters across 25 wards elect either two councillors or three, with 63 set to be elected in total.

Councillor Dino Lemonides — Dino Lemonides

Among the notable candidates standing for election on Thursday, 7^th May is Dino Lemonides, a former Labour cabinet member who has now joined the Conservatives, having previously quit Labour while serving as a councillor in 2020.

Lemonides is standing in Bowes ward. Explaining his switch of political allegiance, he told the Dispatch: “I was never really enamoured with the local Labour Party and my thoughts are that it is a self-serving Labour administration.

“I never accepted many of the local policies, including evidence to support LTNs [low traffic neighbourhoods]. I have never seen convincing evidence on LTNs, I don’t think they reduce traffic or pollution and I also don’t like the idea of building on the Green Belt and removing businesses [from Crews Hill].

“Labour haven’t been robustly leading on the Meridian Water project. When I was cabinet member and [ex-leader] Doug Taylor was in charge we had a handle on this – but not any more.”

Since leaving Labour, Lemonides said that he had been invited by Enfield Conservative group leader Alessandro Georgiou to join the Tories, and was finally persuaded to do so last September.

“I think he [Cllr Georgiou] has a better handle on running the council,” Lemonides added. “This is a local election and I want to see the end of the Labour administration.”

Among Labour’s candidates is Chris McCoy, who has built a strong reputation locally in recent years through his work leading Northside Youth and Community Connections (NYCC), a local charity that runs one of the biggest youth centres in London, at Edmonton Green Shopping Centre.

The Dispatch has asked McCoy about his reasons for standing for Labour in the election, but he has yet to provide a response.

Jason Thompson (left) and Chris McCoy (right) from NYCC — NYCC founder Chris McCoy (right) is standing for the Labour Party

Other notable candidates include Mustafa Cetinkaya, an independent standing in Haselbury ward. Cllr Cetinkaya was previously a Labour councillor but became embroiled in a scandal around a planning application for a dropped kerb outside his property, with the planning committee’s decision eventually being overturned. After being deselected by Labour last year Cllr Cetinkaya claimed the party was “no longer the voice of working people”.

Another controversial councillor, who will be standing again as a Labour candidate, is Mahym Bedekova. Last year she admitted operating a house of multiple occupation (HMO) without planning permission – despite being the chair of the planning committee.

A retrospective application for Cllr Bedekova’s HMO was approved last month. She is now campaigning for re-election in Haselbury – going up against her former Labour colleague Cllr Cetinkaya.

Among the Green Party candidates is Charith Gunawardena, another former Labour councillor who, like Lemonides, quit the party after falling out with the local leadership several years ago. Gunawardena briefly served as the borough’s first-ever Green councillor before losing his re-election bid in 2022 – but now hopes to make a comeback in Southgate, the ward he previously represented.

Meanwhile, two senior Labour councillors are switching wards.

Tim Leaver, the council’s deputy leader who currently represents Highfield ward, will instead be standing in Upper Edmonton. Highfield was the most closely contested ward in 2022, with just 29 votes separating the lowest Labour candidate in second and the highest Conservative candidate in third.

Ayten Guzel, the Labour administration’s cabinet member for housing, is also switching wards. The Southbury councillor will be contesting Carterhatch this time around, which is a safer Labour area.

Southbury is considered one of the main target wards by the Tories and is one they likely must win if they are to return to power at Enfield Civic Centre in three weeks’ time.

Interestingly, Reform UK’s Enfield branch chair, Stephen Bird, is standing in Whitewebbs ward – putting him into a direct battle with the Tories, who won all three Whitewebbs seats in 2022.

The Labour Party has held control of Enfield Council since 2010, when they took over from the Conservatives. No other party has ever run the borough since its formation in 1965.

Labour’s performance locally has been in decline since 2018, however, with the party losing eight seats to the Conservatives in 2022 despite the Tories at that time being mired in the ‘Partygate’ scandal which ultimately saw Boris Johnson ousted as prime minister.

Enfield Labour is also now having to contend with its own unpopular prime minister in Sir Keir Starmer, whose poll ratings have plummeted since the last general election.

Eligible residents have until this coming Monday (20th) to register to vote, if they haven’t already.

Find out more about the promises local parties are making ahead of the election:
Visit enfielddispatch.co.uk/what-the-parties-are-promising-ahead-of-mays-local-election

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