Controversial Green Candidate Wins Lewisham By-Election Against Labour | Lewisham 2026

Key Points

• Green Party candidate Esther Lie won the Crofton Park ward by-election in Lewisham with 1,340 votes, defeating Labour’s Alex Brooks by a margin of 10 votes.
• The by-election victory followed a backlash over a 2013 social media post in which Ms Lie made comments about Indian men.
• Following the controversy, the Green Party’s share of the vote in the ward fell by 7.5 percentage points, while Labour’s share grew by 13.9 points.
• Ms Lie issued a public apology for the deleted tweet, explaining it was a private response to an incident that occurred whilst backpacking as a young person.
• The Labour Party criticised the Green Party for vetting failures and accused them of repeatedly choosing candidates with discriminatory views.
• The local poll was triggered after councillor Liam Shrivastava vacated his seat upon being elected as the first Green mayor of Lewisham.
• The contest took place amid a broader series of nine London council by-elections, costing an estimated £250,000, triggered partly by several Green councillor resignations.

Lewisham (Extra London News) June 22, 2026 – A controversial Green Party candidate has narrowly secured a victory in a London council by-election despite facing widespread criticism over historic social media posts. Esther Lie won the Crofton Park ward seat in Lewisham on Thursday, finishing just ten votes ahead of her nearest rival, Labour’s Alex Brooks. The narrow victory comes after a campaign overshadowed by revelations regarding a deleted tweet from 2013, which prompted accusations of vetting failures and racism from opposing political camps.

The final ballot count revealed that Ms Lie secured the seat with 1,340 votes, surviving a significant swing away from her party. The Green Party’s share of the vote in the Crofton Park ward plummeted by 7.5 points compared to previous local tallies, whilst the Labour Party saw a substantial surge of 13.9 points, bringing Mr Brooks within single-figure distance of capturing the seat. The election was called to fill the vacancy left by Liam Shrivastava, who vacated his council seat following his historic election as the first Green mayor of Lewisham.

The political fallout before the vote centred on a social media post made by Ms Lie over a decade ago. In the 2013 post, she wrote: “Almost fancied the Indian guys at the swimming pool yesterday. Despite their thick prickly torsos and rapey grins.” Ahead of the polling day, Ms Lie apologised publicly for the remarks, explaining that the post had been deleted years prior and was written in response to a specific, personal encounter during her youth. However, the explanation did not prevent fierce condemnation from political opponents, with the Labour Party issuing statements regarding the Green Party’s administrative oversight and selection processes.

The Lewisham contest is part of a larger, highly expensive wave of local by-elections sweeping across the capital. London local authorities are currently facing a series of nine by-elections this month, carrying an aggregate administrative cost of nearly £250,000. This spike in localized polling was driven in significant part by the sudden departure of several Green Party representatives in borough councils across Camden, Haringey, Ealing, Lambeth, and Hackney immediately following the local elections on May 7, forcing councils to rapidly organize unexpected public votes.

Who is Esther Lie and why did her candidacy spark a controversy?

As detailed in the political reporting of Chief Political Correspondent Rachael Burford of The Standard, Esther Lie is a newly elected Green Party councillor for the Crofton Park ward in the London Borough of Lewisham. Her campaign attracted intense public scrutiny and media attention due to the unearthing of a historic post from her personal Twitter account dating back to 2013.

The text of the post contained descriptions that critics characterized as highly offensive and racially insensitive. Ahead of the local vote on Thursday, the candidate addressed the growing public backlash by releasing a statement clarifying the context of the decades-old communication, confirming that the message had been removed from the platform long before she sought public office.

What did Esther Lie say in her controversial 2013 tweet?

In the original post from 2013, which has since been removed from the microblogging platform, Ms Lie explicitly commented on the physical appearance and perceived demeanor of a group of men she observed abroad. As recorded by Rachael Burford of The Standard, Ms Lie wrote: “Almost fancied the Indian guys at the swimming pool yesterday. Despite their thick prickly torsos and rapey grins.”

The phrase “rapey grins” in relation to a specific ethnic group drew the sharpest condemnation from members of the public, local community groups, and opposing political organizations who argued that the language relied on deeply harmful stereotypes.

How did Esther Lie respond to the social media backlash?

In an attempt to address the controversy before voters headed to the ballot boxes in Crofton Park, Ms Lie provided an explanation regarding the origins of the message. As reported by Rachael Burford of The Standard, Ms Lie stated that she deleted the tweet years ago and explained that the comment had been written “in response to a particular event that had happened to me whilst backpacking as a young person – and wasn’t ever meant for public consumption”.

The candidate accompanied this contextual explanation with a direct apology for the language used, though the timing of the discovery ensured that the issue remained a central talking point throughout the final stretch of the local council campaign.

How did the Labour Party react to the Green Party candidate’s posts?

The political opposition reacted swiftly to the revelations, utilizing the situation to challenge the internal administrative processes of the Green leadership. Officials from the Labour Party aimed sharp criticism not only at the individual candidate but at the organizational structure responsible for approving her run for local government.

According to the reporting of Rachael Burford of The Standard, the Labour Party formally accused the Green Party of repeatedly selecting “candidates with racist views” and pointed to what they described as systemic vetting failures within the party’s administrative hierarchy. The statement aimed to connect the incident in Lewisham to broader controversies regarding candidate selection within the Green Party across London.

What were the final election results in the Crofton Park ward by-election?

Despite the intensive political pressure and a sharp decline in her party’s traditional support base within the ward, Ms Lie managed to capture the council seat by the narrowest of margins. The final breakdown of the ballots demonstrated a deeply divided electorate in the wake of the social media scandal.

As published by The Standard, the final voting figures for the top two candidates were:

• Esther Lie (Green Party): 1,340 votes
• Alex Brooks (Labour Party): 1,330 votes

The razor-thin margin of just ten votes highlighted how competitive the race became following the pre-election controversy, transforming what had previously been a more secure area for the Greens into a statistical dead heat.

How did the vote share change for the Greens and Labour in Lewisham?

A granular analysis of the electoral data reveals that the controversy had a measurable impact on voter behavior in Crofton Park. The Green Party suffered an explicit contraction in its local mandate, while Labour capitalised heavily on the dissatisfaction surrounding the Green candidate.

As stated by political journalist Rachael Burford of The Standard, the Green Party’s overall vote share in the Crofton Park ward dropped by 7.5 points. Conversely, the Labour Party’s vote share experienced an increase of 13.9 points. This significant statistical swing almost cost the Greens the seat, demonstrating the electoral damage caused by the campaign row.

Why was the Lewisham council by-election called?

The local poll in the Crofton Park ward was not part of the standard cycle of local authority elections, but was instead a targeted by-election triggered by a shift in local governance leadership.

As reported by The Standard, the poll was called specifically to replace the council seat previously held by Liam Shrivastava. Mr Shrivastava vacated his position as a ward councillor after achieving a major political milestone for his party, having been elected as the first ever Green mayor of Lewisham. His elevation to the mayoral office left his seat empty, necessitating an immediate by-election to restore representation for the residents of Crofton Park.

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Why are so many local by-elections happening across London?

The vote in Lewisham is not an isolated incident; it forms part of an expansive and highly unusual wave of localized polling across the capital that has placed an unexpected burden on municipal budgets. Local authorities are currently managing nine separate council by-elections across various boroughs, a logistical exercise that comes at a combined cost to taxpayers of almost £250,000.

According to coverage compiled by The Standard, this cluster of elections emerged because a total of seven newly elected local councillors had to be replaced shortly after taking office due to a variety of internal and personal reasons. Out of these seven vacancies, six were created by representatives from the Green Party who stood down from their positions almost immediately following the local council elections held on May 7.

Which other London councils are facing unexpected by-elections?

The administrative and financial strain of these sudden vacancies is spread across several distinct local authorities in the Greater London area. The sudden decisions to step down occurred in multiple highly populated boroughs.

As reported by Chief Political Correspondent Rachael Burford of The Standard, Green representatives resigned their seats abruptly in the following local authorities:

1. Camden Council
2. Haringey Council
3. Ealing Council
4. Lambeth Council
5. Hackney Council

These rapid departures forced local authority chief executives to declare immediate vacancies and organize fast-tracked by-elections to ensure residents were not left without elected representatives.

What other candidate controversies have hit the Green Party recently?

The vetting controversy surrounding Ms Lie in Lewisham is part of a broader pattern of candidate difficulties that has complicated the Green Party’s recent electoral gains in London. Among the most prominent departures was that of Saiqa Ali, who had been successfully elected as one of 29 Green councillors representing Lambeth Council.

As reported by Rachael Burford of The Standard, Cllr Ali resigned her seat following her arrest by law enforcement over allegations that she had made a series of antisemitic social media posts. Additionally, the successful election of high-profile Green politician Zoë Garbett to a separate role in Hackney has triggered yet another by-election to fill the council seat she vacated, compounding the