Ex-leader Ejiofor blocked from standing for Labour in council elections

The former leader of Haringey Council has been blocked from standing for re-election as a Labour councillor.

Joseph Ejiofor, who has been a Labour councillor for Bruce Grove since 2010 and served as council leader for three years until last May, said in a social media post that he had been removed as a candidate by the London region organisation within the Labour Party.

The decision comes ahead of local elections set to take place on 5th May in Haringey, where all seats on the council will be contested.

A regional Labour spokesperson said: “All prospective and sitting councillors are subject to internal Labour Party selection processes, including checks on their personal probity, which are applied in the same manner to all prospective candidates.”

Cllr Ejiofor has been approached for comment but has yet to respond. He is quoted by Labour politics news site Labour List as saying the case against him concerned his “decision not to knock down seven council houses or to pay a resident three times the value of his home; my other supposed breach was, unbelievably, to support changing the name of Black Boy Lane”.

He told Labour List he was “unable to share further details at this time while I take legal advice on further avenues to appeal this unfair and unsustainable ruling”.

As a member of the council’s corporate committee, Cllr Ejiofor pushed for Black Boy Lane in West Green to be renamed urgently. The council administration had included it in a wider review of street names, but Cllr Ejiofor successfully lobbied for it to be renamed sooner.

In a report by the Local Government Ombudsman published in January, the former leader was criticised over a decision to scrap a development scheme centred on former care home Cranwood House that would have seen terraced houses demolished. The ombudsman said Cllr Ejiofor’s decision was “flawed” and called on the council to look again at all options for the Muswell Hill site.

The former leader disputed the findings of the ombudsman’s report and said he did not accept his decision was flawed, insisting it “was a result of the council listening to residents” who had “opposed the demolition of their homes”.

Cllr Ejiofor was elected leader of Haringey Council following the last local elections in May 2018. After becoming leader, he made the decision to withdraw the council from the controversial Haringey Development Vehicle agreement, a £2billion deal that would have seen council estates demolished and redeveloped by private-sector development partner Lendlease.

He also began a programme of council housebuilding, pledging to provide 1,000 new homes for council rent over four years. But the council continued to face criticism over its handling of large schemes planned for Tottenham, including the redevelopment of the site of Seven Sisters Market and the 2,600-home High Road West plan.

In May last year, Cllr Ejiofor was ousted by Labour colleague Peray Ahmet in a leadership contest. After becoming leader, Cllr Ahmet said she aimed to heal divisions within the Labour group and pledged to work more closely with residents on issues such as regeneration schemes.