by Chris McLaughlin
A ROW over all-women shortlists has led to the suspension of Easington constituency Labour Party and “civil war” in the north-east of England over the redistribution of council seats.
Easington was suspended after refusing to select from an AWS list in a single seat ward in the new unitary local authority in Durham.
The clash with regional and national officers reflects wider local concern in Durham and Northumberland over the combined effect of the merger of district councils into country councils and the imposition of a 50 per cent female quota on the reduced numbers of redistributed council seats.
There have been complaints that experienced councillors are being “forced out” and that a shortage of local women willing to stand has resulted in candidates from hundreds of miles away putting themselves forward to fill the breach.
But the opposition to AWS has been attacked as backward and anti-women, and comparisons have been made to the notorious anti-women bias that characterised the Labour Party in south Wales for years.
One left-wing activist, who did not wish to be identified because of the strength of feelings over the issue, said: “This is nothing to do with an aversion to gender rebalancing, we are not backward up here. The problem is a lot more complex than that. It is to do with losing good, local, well experienced people who are willing to continue to do a good job for their community being forced out.
“It is hard enough to get councillors anyway, especially among younger people. But when there is the chance to have a choice party members should be free to make it. Much of the concern is about party democracy and whether members are given a choice over who they select.”
Meanwhile, recent parliamentary selections have produced victories for the centre-left against the party establishment. In Streatham, employment lawyer and Tribune contributor Chukka Umunna has been selected to fight the seat held by Tony Blair’s former parliamentary private secretary Keith Hill, who is standing down at the next general election.
Lillian Greenwood, a Unison official in the East Midlands, and a campaigner on women’s rights, public sector pensions and anti-racism, has been selected to fight Nottingham South when Campaign Group member Alan Simpson retires at the next election.
In Hull East, local barrister Karl Turner won a seven-way selection battle which included public relations director David Prescott who had hoped to replace his father John when he stands down at the next election. The former deputy Labour leader is expected to take a seat in the House of Lords when he stands down from the Commons.
