Leith Labour councillor Katrina Faccenda reselected for next year’s local elections
Selection follows successful appeal against exclusion from list of approved candidates
Leith Labour councillor Katrina Faccenda has been selected unopposed to stand for re-election in the ward at next year’s local elections.
No-one else stood against her in the internal selection process and party members voted to endorse her as the Labour candidate in Leith for May 6, 2027.
It comes after Cllr Faccenda successfully challenged a decision of the Edinburgh Labour party’s local government committee to leave her off the list of approved candidates for the council election.
An interviewing panel recommended in September that she should be excluded from the list and the local government committee - made up of delegates from each of the constituency Labour parties in Edinburgh - voted 10-7 against letting her go forward for selection.
But supporters of Cllr Faccenda described her as one of the party’s best councillors in Edinburgh, well-respected in her ward and with a strong record of working hard for her constituents. They claimed the attempt to block her was “vindictive”.
Cllr Faccenda has been suspended from the Labour group twice since first being elected at the last council election in 2022. She abstained in the vote for Labour to become the minority administration after that election and again when Jane Meagher became council leader in succession to Cammy Day in 2024.
But supporters said both these matters had been dealt with through her suspensions and it was unfair to try to punish her again.
There were also warnings that if Cllr Faccenda was not the candidate Labour risked losing the seat. One supporter said the Greens were preparing to run two candidates in the ward, hoping that both could get elected if Labour ditched Cllr Faccenda.
Arguing for a tolerant approach by the party, Cllr Faccenda told the Evening News Labour was always most successful when it was a "broad church". And she said allowing her to stand again for the council would be in line with the spirit of the party under new leaders Andy Burnham at UK level and Michael Marra in Scotland.
She said in seeking approval as a candidate she had given undertakings to the party to follow the whip in future. She said: “I understand what collective responsibility is, I have given an undertaking that I accept the whip, and as a Labour councillor I would be signing a contract saying that too.”
She appealed to Labour’s Scottish Executive Committee (SEC) against her exclusion from the approved list. Individuals and organisations wrote in to praise of her work and support her appeal.
And after considering the evidence, the SEC overturned the exclusion, clearing the way for her to seek selection.
Cllr Faccenda said: “I am delighted to be able to go into next year’s election as the Labour candidate for Leith and am ready to start the hard work to be elected again.
“It is an enormous responsibility and I remain committed to serving the people of Leith and to Labour's traditional values.
“I have been moved by the depth of support I have received from the wider community over the last weeks and this has given me the strength to persist and overcome the obstacles to be selected.”