Democratic deficit: What happened to Lewisham's hustings?
Residents have almost no opportunity to question their councillor candidates, unless they find them knocking on their door.
Greenwich has multiple hustings events, The Greenwich Wire has a growing page of video recordings of hustings, and directs its readers to hustings for 18 of its 23 wards.
Other boroughs, including Southwark, have held theme-based hustings covering issues like air pollution, safer cycling and free fares.
Meanwhile, Lewisham has had only two hustings - the first kept very quiet - and no more are planned.
The first early mayoral hustings on 11 March organised by South East Salon, but along with most of the public and some of the mayoral candidates, we didn't know it was happening.
Last week, there was a hustings for Deptford ward, which Labour and the Conservatives chose not to attend.
On 26 April, charity Citizens UK organised something that initially looked like a mayoral hustings.
But potential candidates were told: "Lewisham Citizens Accountability Assembly is not a public hustings but an event organised by members of the Lewisham Citizens alliance.
"Its purpose is to enable them to develop a relationship with the likely future Mayor and secure commitments related to their campaigns ..
"Therefore, the alliance does not usually invite every candidate, only those they decide have the greatest chance of winning the election."
The charity also makes clear that it does not invite the public, and says that its democratic processes are "already complete" before the candidates are chosen.
Citizen's UK Lewisham lists 14 member organisations, including schools, seven churches including the pentecostal New Testament Church of God in Lee, and the Lewisham Islamic Centre.
Only Labour's mayoral candidate, Amanda De Ryk and the Green candidate, Liam Shrivastava were invited.
Across the borough, Labour and the Conservatives are standing a full slate of 54 candidates in the local elections, the Greens 53, the Liberal Democrats 52 and Reform 35.
There are also three Your Party candidates and other smaller parties and independents standing candidates.
While Reform have a full slate in Greenwich, in Lewisham they are contesting only 65% of seats.
This is a significantly lower percentage than the proportion of seats they they are contesting across England, which according to Democracy Club is 95% of the 5,066 councillor seats.
Many long-standing Labour councillors are standing again, including Chris Best, standing in Sydenham ward who was first elected in 1986 and Susan Wise in Perry Vale, who was first elected in 1998.
Other Labour councillors who have served continuously for many terms include John Muldoon, standing in Rushey Green, Jacq Paschoud for Forest Hill, her husband John Paschoud in Perry Vale, Mark Ingleby standing in Hither Green and Liam Curran, also in Sydenham.
Gavin Moore was a Labour councillor and deputy mayor under Steve Bullock's first term as Lewisham mayor (2002 - 2006), but lost his Blackheath seat in 2006.
20 years later, Gavin Moore is seeking a return to the council, standing for Bellingham ward.
In his mayoral bid, Liam Shrivastava made an allegation of Lewisham Labour "career politicians", highlighting the number of Lewisham Labour councillors who move on to Westminster, and questioning their commitment to residents.
There are also concerns that political ambition may make them less willing to criticise the government, for example on its push for disability cuts or its lurch to the right on immigration.
Councillor Sian Eiles, standing again for Brockley, is both chair of the pensions investment committee and head of office for David Lammy MP, who was foreign secretary from July 2024 to September 2025 and is now justice secretary.
Looking at newly standing Labour candidates, George Ryan, is standing in Bellingham, is a manager at London South East Colleges for 16+ vocational education, also an associate director at Public First, a consultancy firm based in Westminster.
Journalist Peter Geoghegan found that the Labour party had 34 new MPs arriving in parliament in the last election with a background in lobbying and concerns have about corporate influence have risen.
Jay Morton is another new Labour candidate, standing in Brockley. She hosts a podcast, Architects for Change, is a founder of Architects for Labour and recently sought nomination to stand as RIBA president.
Eva Kestner, currently a Labour councillor for Lee Green, is not standing again in Lewisham.
She is running as Scottish Labour's MSP candidate for Caithness, Sutherland and Ross in the Holyrood elections instead.
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