(The London Borough of Lewisham is where Venice Allan booked two venues to hold the London meetings of We Need To Talk. Both venues cancelled after coming under intense pressure from activists determined to prevent the meetings from taking place. Lewisham is a strong Labour borough and the Labour candidate is generally regarded as a certainty to be elected as Mayor.)
At Mayoral hustings on Monday night the candidates were asked about freedom of speech, with reference to the two cancelled meetings.
The Labour candidate, Damien Egan, said meetings could be booked on council premises provided they weren't promoting hate speech or transphobic. He said he was aware groups with transphobic views had been barred from holding meetings and thought that was the right decision. When asked after the meeting whether he considered the referenced meetings (ie Venice Allan's) to be transphobic, he said yes.
The other candidate who knew of the New Cross meeting issue was John Hamilton of Lewisham People Before Profit. He said everyone deserves police protection if there is a threat that a meeting is going to be disrupted. He thought the meeting should have happened safely in Lewisham and not in the open air [a reference to the Speakers' Corner incident].