The Conservatives are still searching for candidates to stand against the three local Labour incumbents

Voters in Enfield will be heading to the polls for the second time in two months on 4^th July – this time to select three members of parliament in the general election.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak called a surprise summer election on Wednesday (22nd), starting six weeks of frantic political campaigning.

While the Tories are defending an 80-seat majority from 2019, Labour currently has an average opinion poll lead over the Conservatives of more than 20 points, which suggests they could win by a healthy margin. Polls tend to narrow during election campaigns, however.

In Enfield, the borough’s three Labour MPs – Enfield Southgate’s Bambos Charalambous, Enfield North’s Feryal Clark and Edmonton’s Kate Osamor – will all be defending their seats, albeit with newly named constituencies in the cases of Southgate and Wood Green and Edmonton and Winchmore Hill.

In terms of who will be standing in these seats for the other major parties, the Conservatives have yet to announce a single candidate, while the Liberal Democrats have announced all three. Reform UK and the Workers Party of Britain have also selected candidates in each seat, while the Green Party has announced its Southgate and Wood Green candidate but not any others.

The Dispatch understands that the Tory candidates will be selected by the first week of June, with the selection processes being sped up.

In addition, a newly-formed political group called Enfield Community Action Group has announced it will be standing three independent candidates locally, on a left-wing platform, with candidates set to be confirmed next week.

Based on the candidates announced so far and the parties still to announce, it’s expected that at least seven candidates will be standing in each Enfield seat.

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The previous Enfield Southgate constituency was previously a marginal seat that had swung between Labour and the Conservatives several times, most recently in 2017 when Charalambous defeated David Burrowes, but the newly-extended constituency boundary brings Labour-voting areas in Haringey, principally Wood Green and Bounds Green, into the seat.

Enfield North also has recent history as a Conservative seat, having been held by Tory Nick de Bois between 2010 and 2015. The addition of Ponders End to the constituency should make it a safer Labour seat, however.

Edmonton had been held by Labour ever since 1997 and has been one of the safest seats in the country ever since that time, but the addition of Winchmore Hill means the Conservative vote share could increase.

Both Charalambous and Osamor have been suspended by Labour for ten months and three months respectively within the last year, but both had the Labour whip reinstated this spring following investigations by the party’s head office.

The known candidates for the three local constituencies at the present time (4.30pm on Friday, 24th May) are listed below. For updates go to whocanivotefor.co.uk.

Edmonton and Winchmore Hill

• Seton During (Workers Party of Britain)
• Tim Martin (Liberal Democrats)
• Kate Osamor (Labour)
• Neville Watson (Reform UK)

Enfield North

• Aishat Anifowoshe (Workers Party of Britain)
• Stephen Bird (Reform UK)
• Feryal Clark (Labour)
• Guy Russo (Liberal Democrats)

Southgate and Wood Green

• Bambos Charalambous (Labour Party)
• Lauren Fulbright (Liberal Democrats)
• Charith Gunawardena (Green Party)
• Christopher Menon (Workers Party of Britain)
• David Schofield (Reform UK)

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