Two sitting Edinburgh Labour councillors blocked by party from standing at 2027 council elections
‘I know I've got very strong support within the wider community in Leith’ - Cllr Katrina Faccenda
Two sitting Labour councillors have been blocked by the party from standing for re-election at next year's council elections.
Leith councillor Katrina Faccenda and Conor Savage, who represents Colinton/Fairmilehead, both failed to get onto the "panel" of approved candidates from which local parties can choose who stands in their ward.
Cllr Faccenda, who was first elected at the last local elections in 2022, has been suspended from the Labour group twice since then and it is understood she has defied the whip by abstaining or voting against the party line a total of 21 times.
The local government committee - made up of delegates from each of the constituency Labour parties in Edinburgh - is understood to have voted 10-7 against letting her go forward for selection.
But she said she was appealing to Labour's Scottish Executive Committee against the decision.
She said: "I know I've got very strong support within the wider community in Leith. They appreciate the work I've done as a councillor and some of them have already offered to write to the Labour party to say what a good job I've done."
Cllr Savage was elected at a double by-election in January 2025, which saw the Conservatives and Labour fill vacancies left by the resignation of Lib Dem and SNP councillors.
Originally from Wales, he moved to Edinburgh as a student before working in finance. He once stood for Plaid Cymru and was Labour's candidate in Orkney and Shetland at the 2024 general election.
The by-election at which Cllr Savage was elected was the second in Colinton/Fairmilehead in less than three months because Louise Spence, the Lib Dem victor in the previous contest, in November 2024, resigned within days after it was revealed she was planning to move to Dubai despite running a campaign which stressed that she lived in the ward.
After the Tories took first place in the January double by-election, it was a close contest between Labour and the Lib Dems for the second seat, but Cllr Savage remained narrowly ahead throughout several rounds of counting and emerged the victor in the end.
But it is understood the party was not impressed with his performance once he was elected as a councillor. Earlier this month he was replaced as chair of the Edinburgh Integration Joint Board, which oversees health and social care in the Capital, and removed from the post of baillie, which involves representing the Lord Provost at events when he is unavailable.
The council elections in May next year will be a crucial test for Labour after five years running the city as a minority administration.
Labour’s selection procedures require all councillors wishing to stand again, and all other would-be candidates, to be interviewed by representatives of the local government committee, who then recommend whether the individual should be approved for the panel.
The local government committee then votes on whether to accept the recommendations and local parties can then choose their candidates.
It is understood that if an appeal is lodged, a hearing is held within seven days.
Cllr Savage has been approached for comment.