by Chris McLaughlin
Two high-profile battles for key Labour seats in the party’s north England heartlands are under way before the firing gun has been officially started on the selection process.
In Barrow and Furness, in the north west, the local newspaper has already anointed former Defence Secretary John Hutton’s replacement, sparking rumours of a campaign to parachute in a Downing Street staffer.
In Newcastle Upon Tyne Central, where veteran Labour MP Jim Cousins is standing down, former minister Barbara Roche is set to make her third bid to re-enter the House of Commons. Both contests have provoked speculation that aides to Gordon Brown are determined to sway the decision in favour of one of their own camp.
John Woodcock, 30, has been introduced to voters in Barrow and Furness – majority 6,037 – by the North West Evening Mail as “Labour’s man set to replace John Hutton”. Mr Woodcock was an aide to Mr Hutton – who is standing down – from 2005 and is currently a special advisor to Mr Brown.
Mr Woodcock, who was born in Sheffield, told the paper: “I’ve been bowled over by the response from party members in Barrow since John announced he was going to stand down… it would be an enormous honour to be able to represent the area.”
Mr Woodcock has already been seen knocking on doors in the constituency. Among the other contenders once the selection is opened will be Cat Smith, a leading light in the newly-dynamic Young Labour.
An all-women shortlist may apply to the contest in Newcastle. There are no women MPs between the Tyne in England and Stirling in Scotland. That would produce a strong field with Ms Roche, the former MP for the previously safe Labour seat of Hornsey and Wood Green, which she lost in 2005, as the most prominent. She is expected to receive the support of Unite as she did when recently contesting unsuccessfully Houghton and Sunderland South and Stockton North. In Parliament she was a close ally of Mr Brown.
She would face stiff competition from former Newcastle councillor Sally Young, a charity chief executive and campaigner for Keep the Post Office Public. Tracey Paul, a Labour organiser, could prove a controversial candidate since she is a staffer in the north-east party office. Another candidate is likely to be Joyce McCarty deputy leader of the council Labour group, and prominent anti-BNP campaigner.
If Newcastle – majority 3,982 – is an open contest Nick Forbes, leader of the Labour group and Davey Wood, another councillor and close ally of chief whip Nick Brown, would be in the frame, together with Gareth Myton, an outsider who currently works for Mr Cousins in the Commons, but who is being urged to stand by an online campaign.
