Labour splits over candidate selection for Lewisham East by-election
Politics Home reports of Labour infighting, and complacency, over the selection of their candidate for the Lewisham East Parliamentary by-election:
Labour bosses have been accused of a “stitch-up” designed to ensure a left-wing candidate will be chosen to stand in the forthcoming Lewisham East by-election.
Senior members of Labour’s national executive committee – including Jeremy Corbyn – will meet this morning to agree the timetable for the race, including which of them will make up a panel to decide the shortlist of candidates.
But that has sparked an angry backlash from local activists in the south London constituency…
They have insisted there is no need to rush the process, given that Ms Alexander retained the seat at last year’s general election with a majority of more than 21,000.
Ian McKenzie, chair of the Lewisham East constituency Labour party, wrote… “Without consulting a single member of the Lewisham East Labour party, the officers’ group of the national executive is meeting at 10.30am tomorrow to decide the selection process for deciding who replaces Heidi Alexander as our MP, a position someone could hold for decades.”
There does seem to be a touch of complacency from the local Labour Party, not worrying about giving other parties more time to campaign and already planning how they may have a new Labour MP for decades.
Wouldn’t it be a shame if that complacency was misplaced? For better/worse Labour in Parliament have been less complacent, setting the date for the by-election as 14 June.
If my contacts are correct, the point of the by-election other than finding Heidi a real job is to point out to the party that Corbyn could not win a general election. While Momentum appears to now run the borough party, given that they wrote the borough election manifesto — including such commitments not to CPO land and premises to give to a private developer.
That, after all, is the point of taking Millwall FC land to give to Renewal, an off-shore would-be developer founded by an ex-mayor and a senior officer. But the old guard are still in control of the council, if only through the new mayor, Bullock-clone Damian Egan, and especially in the Lewisham East constituency.
But it is rather naivé of them to think they could choose their own short-list, even if they say they want a BME female, (with, of course Blairite views.) What is more important is who will be the Lib Dem candidate.
The obvious and best choice would be Duwayne Brooks, who lives in the constituency. But he and the local party seem to be at loggerheads over an agreement, or not, for Duwayne to run as an independent with Lib Dem (and possibly Green).
But our masters are rushing round asking anyone with a dark suntan, including those who have suffered badly from previous racism by the party.