Now a London Labour activist wants their Euro-selections rerun
I’ve mentioned the attack on UNITE’s “autocratic monopoly” from a London Labour activist, and the way another Labour councillor and cabinet member has condemned Ed Miliband’s union reform plans as “panicky”.
Now another complaint has sprung up from within Labour’s ranks:
Ed Miliband today faced calls to rerun the London contest to select Labour candidates for European elections after it was branded a union “stitch-up”.
As Labour’s crisis deepened, officials from the Unite and GMB unions were accused of blocking strong party contenders to clear the way for their own preferred candidates…
London activist Michael Rubenstein said today: “There was no mention in Ed’s speech about what happened in the London selection for European elections, but there is a case for rerunning the whole thing, as the election is still around a year away.”
Read the full story in the Evening Standard and for more detail on how Labour’s Euro-selections panned out, see Labour activist Jon Worth’s piece.
I know Anne Fairweather a little from university & Brussels. I find it very hard to believe that Anne , who managed to be third on the Labour London eurolist in 2009 ie highest placed candidate after sitting MEPs was not considered a good enough candidate to be interviewed this time round.
There are three possible explanations:
1) Anne has said or done something that now makes her unsuitable (I cannot imagine this is the case and have seen nothing to indicate this).
2) The quality of applicants was so high that Anne didn’t make the grade this time ie every single other applicant shortlisted was far better than her (seems unlikely).
3) The Union representatives involved in shortlisting saw Anne as a serious threat to their preferred candidate(s) ie likely to do better when party members voted on the list, and thus eliminated her from the process.
Personally I think the third option is the most likely, but I am not close to the situation at all.