Brenda Dacres: History made as Lewisham elects its first Black female mayor

A south-east London borough has made history after it elected its first Black woman to serve as mayor.

Brenda Dacres ran for the Labour Party in Lewisham and won with 21,576 votes - more than half of the vote.

The Green Party’s Michael Herron came in second place with 6,835 of the votes, while the Liberal Democrat candidate Chris Haines placed third with 4,896.

Conservative candidate Siama Qadar received just 3,784 votes, while George Galloway’s Workers Party was beaten into fifth place with candidate John Hamilton receiving 2,378 votes.

Maureen Maud Martin, of the Christian Peoples Alliance, received 1,233 votes, and independent candidate Nick Long received 917.

Voter turnout was low, at 20.74%. Lewisham is one of five London boroughs where residents directly elect a mayor to lead the council, rather than having councillors elect a leader.

The by-election was held after the previous mayor Damien Egan quit to run as an MP in the Kingswood by-election in South Gloucestershire, which he won.

Ms Dacres has been a Labour councillor since 2014, representing wards in New Cross and Deptford and has served as deputy mayor and cabinet member for housing development and planning since 2021.

In a statement after her victory Ms Dacres said: “It's a privilege and an honour to be the first Black woman to serve as a directly elected Mayor in the UK. 

“Our borough is my home of 40 years and where I raised my son. My parents came here as part of the Windrush generation and instilled in me their ethics of community and hard work.

“Over the past 10 years it has been an honour to serve as a councillor, cabinet member and as your deputy mayor. I'm excited to be in a position to drive forward the changes we need to ensure we keep moving Lewisham forward and make sure the voices of residents and businesses are heard. I've spent a lifetime fighting against low expectations. I didn't accept them for me and I'll never accept them for Lewisham residents.”