Tribune – Labour leadership gossip, news, features and comment from Britain's left-wing magazine

by Chris McLaughlin

The selection of a swathe of would-be Labour MPs before the general election has come under scrutiny amid concern over excessive secrecy.

The spotlight has fallen on Leyton and Wanstead in east London, the last remaining Labour seat in the capital to select a candidate.

A shortlist of candidates was due to be drawn up by a special panel of the party’s National Executive Committee on February 11, after Tribune went to press.

But concerns have been raised over the process used to eliminate candidates before the shortlisting meeting. At least three members of the London Assembly were rejected, one by email and without explanation within 48 hours of applying.

Of a longlist of nine, only two candidates were women, just one was from the constituency, but all are understood to have east London connections.

The rejection message was sent by a party official on behalf of the NEC’s special selections panel. No information has been issued about the method or criteria for the whittling down process, the total number of applicants or those involved in the elimination process. The panel appears to be operating an unofficial ban on any incumbent elected member at council, regional or city level.

The party’s deputy leader, Harriet Harman, has been absent from recent meetings amid speculation that she wished to avoid a conflict of interest with her husband and party treasurer Jack Dromey’s ambitions to find a safe Labour seat.

After a flurry of rumour that he would throw his hat into the ring in Leyton and Wanstead, where MP Harry Cohen is retiring on a majority of 6,857, Mr Dromey is now expected to apply for Birmingham Erdington, where Sion Simon leaves a majority of 9,575.

A suggestion from NEC member Peter Kenyon that local party members should be involved as observers was rejected. He said: “There is no transparency in the whole process.”

Jeff Ennis last week became the 85th Labour MP to announce he is standing down from his Barnsley East and Mexborough seat (majority 16,789) at the next general election, taking the total to just one below the final tally in 2005, but with more expected.