Controversy over the process of choosing Labour election candidates has been fuelled by a row over the selection of historian Tristram Hunt in the safe seat of Stoke Central.
Party member Mick Williams, who was presented with the party’s merit award in 2008 to “honour a lifetime’s commitment to the Labour Party”, has resigned in protest in a personal email to Gordon Brown.
He intends to stand against Labour in the local council elections on the same day as the May 6 general election and has returned his certificate of merit.
It follows the announcement by former constituency secretary Gary Elsby that he is to challenge Mr Hunt at the election.
Mr Hunt, a well-known television presenter of history documentaries, was selected as the prospective candidate for Stoke-on-Trent Central (Labour majority 9,774) at a hustings meeting on April 1.
The decision followed speculation in the party and local and national media that Mr Hunt was the favoured candidate of Peter Mandelson whose support had helped him secure the seat. In his email to Mr Brown, Mr Williams, a party member since 1964, claims the selection was “obviously rigged”.
He told Tribune that he could no longer be a member of a party which failed to follow democratic rules. Labour’s regional office has reported no infringement of the rules and no evidence has emerged of any direct interference by Mr Mandelson.
But the incident, which came on the day Mr Brown announced the date of what promises to be the most closely-fought election in recent memory, reflects wider concern among Stoke party members and those in other constituencies over the selection process.
The row follows a similar controversy over the selection of Jonathan Reynolds in Stalybridge and Hyde following the intervention on his behalf of Mr Mandelson and the constituency’s retiring MP James Purnell in the selection process.
Mr Purnell was outraged that his ally had not been included on the shortlist drawn up by local members and, following a meeting in the constituency on the day it was announced, Lord Mandelson successfully lobbied to have Mr Reynolds, who is embroiled in a civil war among local councillors, added to the list.
Local members, including former MP Tom (now Lord) Pendry, were also outraged but have been told there is no recourse to any further appeal.
Mr Hunt, who obtained a copy of an article which appears in this week’s print edition of Tribune before it went to press, commented: “I dispute every element of this article. I have never been a member of the Fabians and I have no recollection of the meeting to which the article makes reference.” He told Tribune that he had never met the author of the piece, Martin Rowson. Mr Rowson stands by his article and insists that the two men discussed the exchange in a convivial discussion at a later encounter.
