Sagal Abdi-Wali, Nasrine Djemai and Camron Aref-Adib

LABOUR members will select from a shortlist of three councillors as they choose who should stand in the Holborn and St Pancras by-election, the New Journal can reveal.

They will meet on Wednesday to hear from the three potential candidates: Sagal Abdi-Wali, Nasrine Djemai and Camron Aref-Adib. A vote of those who turn up to the meeting will then decide who is on the ballot paper for the polls battle scheduled for Thursday, October 8.

Nearly 100 applicants received hard luck messages from the party this evening (Monday) in a brutal process which has whittled down the large field of hopefuls to a trio in less than a week. Nobody from outside Camden has made it past the interview stage.

The by-election follows Sir Keir Starmer’s resignation from the House of Commons last week and is only the third time in more than 40 years that the opportunity to stand as Labour’s parliamentary candidate in the south of Camden has come up.

Cllr Abdi-Wali, who only became Camden’s council leader in May, has been heavily tipped to win the selection contest this week and if she was to become an MP, the secondary matter would be another internal Labour party process to find somebody to take over at the top at the Town Hall. Cllr Djemai and Cllr Aref-Adib are both cabinet-level councillors with the key briefs of regeneration and finance.

Several other councillors and ex-councillors – including Rishi Madlani – were amongst those rejected by the shortlisting panel.

More follows