Lewisham mayor grilled over delayed donation to food bank while campaigning for MP seat in Bristol

By Robert Firth, Local Democracy Reporter

A mayor has faced questions over why it took him two months to donate his allowance to a food bank for a period he spent campaigning 120 miles away in Bristol.

In June, mayor of Lewisham Damien Egan promised to give his allowance to Lewisham Food Bank during the time he would spend campaigning to become Labour’s parliamentary candidate for Bristol North East.

But at a Lewisham council meeting last week, Mr Egan revealed he was yet to hand over the money he received for his mayoral duties to the charity.

This is despite Mr Egan’s campaign ending with his successful selection as Labour’s candidate in Bristol two months earlier at the end of July.

When he was quizzed at the meeting last week on when he would publish proof he had paid his allowance to the food bank, Mr Egan admitted he had yet to make the payment.

Mr Egan has confirmed that the donation has been made since last week’s council meeting.

He said: “I said at the beginning, the allowance that I received is what I’m donating to Lewisham Food Bank. My intention is to transfer the money I received.”

Mr Egan added that he thought the pledge was “something positive” and accused the questioner Mark Bennett, of “trying to turn that into something disingenuous and something quite different”.

Lewisham Liberal Democrats, who currently have no councillors elected in the borough, said: “While the donation made by Damien Egan is welcome it says a great deal that the payment was only finally made after questions were asked.”

Lewisham Labour Party said that Mr Egan received bank details for Lewisham Food Bank on September 7 and transferred the money as soon as he could afterwards.

Pictured top: Mayor of Lewisham, Damien Egan (Picture: Lewisham council)