Weeks before Greenwich borough’s fourth byelection this year in West Thamesmead, Labour is in a good mood after winning Shooter’s Hill.

Raja Zeeshan held on to the Labour seat, the party’s first council election win this year.

Zeeshan is set to replace former council leader Danny Thorpe, who stepped down as councillor six weeks ago.

Thorpe led the Greenwich Council for four years, mainly during the COVID-19 pandemic. He served as Shooter’s Hill’s councillor from 2004.

West Thamemead votes for its councillor on December 19, following the resignation of Councillor Chris Lloyd, the only Liberal Democrat currently on the council. Lloyd has endorsed Lib Dem candidate Steve Day.

Day, the current chair of the Royal Artillery Quays resident’s association, has been the face of the Building Safety Scheme and a years-long campaign to remove “unlawfully installed and dangerous cladding” from the Royal Artillery Quays apartment complex.

Day has said he is running for councillor to push the removal of cladding, which would “make our homes safe, sellable and insurable”. Saying he was “appalled” that the work to remove cladding still does not have a start date, he has criticised a Labour councillor for removing their signature from a Lib Dem motion on the matter “at the last minute”, causing it to fail.

Day has also pledged to fight for other local issues such as fly-tipping and potholes.

The full candidate list for the West Thamesmead byelection was released on Friday, with Jahdia Spencer, 26, being a surprise Labour candidate.

Spencer joined the Labour Party just two years ago after she sent a congratulatory email to Council Leader Anthony Okereke on his win for the position. Okereke then encouraged her

Spencer became a well-known figure in the Greenwich Labour Party in 2023 when she represented the Greenwich and Woolwich constituency party at the Labour Party Conference in Liverpool.

Spencer was a controversial pick for the West Thamesmead election. Typically, local Labour constituents choose the candidate to represent them in council elections. Spencer, however, was chosen by Labour’s London region as the nominee.

Sandra Lee, a West Thamesmead resident who has voted Labour for the last 17 years, said: “I really don’t understand why Labour London would do such a silly thing. It’s already unlikely this area is going to be a Labour win, so why turn your voters against you?”

When asked about Spencer as a candidate, Lee shook her head: “She seems like a perfectly alright candidate, I think she would be a great councillor. I just wished I had the option to put her in the running.”

Originally from Bermuda, Spencer moved to the United Kingdom at 16.

Spencer plans on returning to the island later in life to continue her career in politics, she told Bermuda’s daily newspaper, the Royal Gazette.

While Spencer and Day are the two favourites for the West Thamesmead election, there are three other candidates also running.

Siama Gulnar Qadar, who previously ran in the Lewisham mayoral by-election, is the Conservative party candidate.

Ruth Handyside is running for the Reform UK party in West Thamesmead, after representing the party in the Eltham Town by-election just a few weeks ago, and Anji Peterson the Green Party candidate.

Zeeshan’s campaign focused on local issues, including Shooter’s Hill residents’ concerns about fly-tipping, littering and waste.

In his acceptance speech, the new councillor thanked the other candidates, members of his campaign team and the residents of Shooter’s Hill: “Thank you… to all the constituents, all the members of Shooter’s Hill for believing their trust in me.”

Shooter’s Hill is a safe Labour area, which Zeeshan won with 1,043 votes. Conservative candidate Ezra Aydin came a distant second with 237 votes.