Labour chiefs were accused of “disgraceful” last-minute “stitch-ups” as Keir Starmer loyalists looked set to be parachuted into safe seats.
A string of seats in the party’s heartlands have no candidate due to MPs standing down or the party failing to select a candidate before Rishi Sunak called a snap general election for 4 July.
The party has now imposed emergency measures that mean small three-person panels from its ruling national executive committee (NEC) – rather than the usual process of a local members’ vote – have the power to impose candidates.
Sources say shortlists, being emailed out on Tuesday, are likely to include several key apparatchiks who have played vital roles in the Starmer project since 2019.
In what one insider predicted would a “big payday for loyalists”, several members of the all-powerful NEC were predicted to apply.
It comes as figures on the left of the party were angered by news that an investigation into Diane Abbott, MP for Hackney North and Stoke Newington, over claims of racism concluded in December and was not, as had been claimed, ongoing.
The veteran left-winger who was the first black woman elected to parliament in 1987, said on Wednesday that Labour has barred her from standing for the party.
The long-standing socialist MP and Jeremy Corbyn ally was asked to complete an antisemitism awareness course but did not regain the Labour whip before an election was called.
The snap poll announcement has seen a number of Labour MPs with healthy majorities announcing they would not contest their seat at the election. They include long-standing party figures such as John Cryer, Lyn Brown, Julie Elliott, Kevan Brennan, Kevan Jones and Barbara Keeley. It has sparked a last-minute rush to replace them.
James Asser, the deputy mayor of Newham who has chaired the NEC during the Starmer era, could be on course for a London seat such as West Ham, following long-serving MP Mr Brown’s late decision to quit on Tuesday.
Businessman Gurinder Singh Josan, who has served on the NEC since 2020, is seen as likely to contest Smethwick after stalwart John Spellar decided to quit.
Mr Josan posted on X, formerly Twitter, that Mr Spellar, who in 1980 founded Labour First, the faction most closely associated with the party’s traditional right, that the outgoing MP had “been the real force behind Labour First in the fight to keep the party in the election-winning mainstream”.
Luke Akehurst, a well-known factional warrior on the right of the party, is also believed to be mulling applying for a seat in the capital.
Sources say Georgia Gould, leader of Camden Council and councillor for Starmer’s own Kentish Town, may be in the frame for Queen’s Park and Maida Vale, while Terry Paul, staunch Blairite and Newham councillor, is expected to put himself forward.
Mark Ferguson, an NEC member who shored up crucial support for Starmer in the Unison union, is one of several key trade unionists who could be in line for a sear.
Mr Ferguson may return to his native North East as candidate for Gateshead Central and Whickham, after long-serving left-winger Ian Mearns recently announced his retirement.
Kate Dearden, head of research for the strongly supportive Community union, has been associated with Halifax, where the party’s deputy chief whip Holly Lynch is standing down.
Gerard Coyne, a trade unionist who twice stood against “Red” Len McCluskey – one of Mr Corbyn’s staunchest defenders – to be Unite’s general secretary in the Corbyn era, is said to be aiming for Tipton.
Michael Wheeler, of the shopworkers’ union Usdaw, has reportedly been considering applying for a seat as has Josh Simons, the head of Starmerite think-tank Labour Together.
Nesil Caliskan, Labour leader of Enfield Council, said to be highly rated by the leadership, is another name circulating.
Mr Caliskan is the Labour group leader on the Local Government Association, where Starmer’s campaign director Morgan McSweeney spent many years as head of office.
Helen Goodman, the former MP of Bishop Auckland who lost her seat to the Conservatives in the Boris Johnson 2019 tidal wave, is also thought to be among those applying.
Several safe seats have become available in the last few days as MPs with long parliamentary careers make way for new blood. They include North Durham, Sunderland Central, Greater Manchester’s Worsley and Eccles and London’s Leyton and Wanstead.
Insiders say Starmer’s closest aides are working to ensure safe seats will be packed by those on board with the new direction of the party, so reforms do not fall victim to friendly fire.
It has riled those on the left, however, who say their allies are being cut out of the process.
Mish Rahman, one of the NEC’s left-wingers, posted on X: “I can’t wait to see at the NEC candidates approval meeting – if any NEC member selected as a candidate is there to – approve themselves.”
Simon Fletcher, previously a senior adviser to both Mr Corbyn and later Starmer, called the emergency measures for selections “disgraceful”, adding: “Centralisation by the national party has now reached a new level altogether with a frenzy of last-minute retirements in which local parties are stitched up by NEC – apparently in some cases for NEC members themselves. Members’ rights and the views of local communities are being trampled underfoot.
“Where I live [Gateshead] the MP gave plenty of notice of his retirement but the party is simply proceeding to impose a candidate over the heads of the members in any case.”
A spokesman for Momentum, which supported the Corbyn project, said: “From the blocking of Jeremy Corbyn against his local party’s wishes to the widespread exclusion of popular local candidates, we have seen ordinary Labour members treated with contempt by Keir Starmer’s Westminster clique. Once again, this is the total opposite of what Keir Starmer pledged.”
“With Labour’s next MP cohort set to be dominated by well-connected Westminster insiders, the long-term damage to public trust in politics will be deep.”
i has approached Labour for comment.
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