Brenda Dacres has been selected as Labour’s candidate to be the next Mayor of Lewisham.

The Mayor by-election is set for March 7 and she is expected to win, as the previous Labour candidate, Damien Egan, triumphed with 58 percent of the vote in the last mayoral election in 2022, an increase of four percent compared to the election in 2018. 

Green Party candidate Nick Humberstone came a distant second in 2022, picking up nearly 16 percent of the vote.

Since the resignation of the former mayor, Damien Egan in January, Councillor Dacres, who was the Deputy Mayor has been acting Mayor. Councillors Amanda De Ryk and Rudi Schmidt also put themselves forward to be the Labour’s new candidate for mayor. However, Councillor Schmidt failed to get short-listed.

Siama Quadar was announced as Conservative candidate for mayor of Lewisham last week. 

Lewisham Council is expected to publish the list of all candidates for the upcoming by-election shortly after the nomination deadline on February 9. 

All other councillors in Lewisham are also from the Labour party, except for Hau-Yu Tam, who is currently suspended from the party and sits as an independent.

Dacres has been a local councillor since 2014. She said it was the “honour” of her life to be selected as the Labour’s candidate for mayor and pledged to restore face-to-face council services if elected by voters in the borough. 

Dacres added: “As a working-class Black woman, I know how hard things are for residents after 14 years of Tory cuts and chaos. But I also know the transformative impact Labour has in power, changing lives for the better – and I will never accept anything but the best for Lewisham.” 

Councillor Amanda De Ryk, Lewisham’s cabinet member for finance who stood against Dacres, thanked Labour members who had given her their vote and said it had been an “honour” to stand with Dacres.