by René Lavanchy
Labour Party activists were this week expected to mount a formal complaint about the parliamentary selection process in Barrow and Furness, in advance of the expected victory of Downing Street aide John Woodcock.
Mr Woodcock, one of Gordon Brown’s media team, has been accused of breaking party rules in his bid for selection, as Tribune reported last week. A letter was due to be sent to to regional staff and party general secretary Ray Collins as Tribune went to press.
The letter is expected to raise the issue of a front-page article in the North West Evening Mail, published before the formal selection process began, which promoted Mr Woodcock as “set to replace John Hutton”, the former Defence Secretary and current MP.
Though he is expected to win the selection vote on Saturday (23 October), Mr Woodcock’s selection has to be confirmed by Labour’s National Executive Committee. Any complaint against the selection would be investigated by the NEC’s organisation sub-committee.
The North West Region Labour Party, which has consistently denied all allegations of impropriety, is expected to advise the NEC to reject the complaint.
Formal complaints have already been raised about Mr Woodcock’s wife allegedly spying on a rival candidate’s speech at a shortlisting meeting, and about the alleged misuse of postal vote application forms. Although party rules state that postal votes are only for those physically unable to turn up to vote, over one-quarter of registered party members will be voting postally.
A regional Labour Party spokesperson said: “The Labour Party parliamentary selection process is open, transparent and fair and is predicated on the principle that the decision of who should be their candidate is one for local Party members. Any breaches of these rules around this process will be investigated thoroughly if the complaints are deemed to have foundation.
“The Labour Party has not been provided with any evidence of rules being broken in the Barrow selection process and has full confidence in that process. A query around postal vote processes was brought to the attention of the NEC representative and all candidates were reminded about the correct procedure.
