Labour's corrupt Parliamentary selection process is final straw for local activists

After well over a year of requests to begin selecting their Parliamentary candidate by the Scarborough and Whitby Labour Party, party leadership in London finally gave the CLP the go-ahead at the end of January. With national polling trends suggesting that the constituency is a sure-gain for Labour at the next General Election, its no surprise that a number of out-of-town, right-wing, budding candidates have already arisen out of the woodwork hoping to be parachuted into a seat that will kick-start their political career.

However, history would suggest that Scarborough and Whitby CLP isn’t exactly the most fertile ground for non-local opportunists. At the last selection in 2018, for all the efforts of the 2 parachutist candidates representing the right-wing and left-wing of the party respectively, it was the 2 local, left-wing candidates who gained local members’ favour and dominated the vote. It was this level of support for a local voice which invigorated not just the subsequent General Election campaign but also the campaign of the intermediate local elections which saw Labour taking control of the local council for the first time in well over a decade.

Nethertheless, you can’t criticise opportunistic careerists for at least trying to give it a go… bless them. The first to pop their head above the parapet was Ben Cooper, a name which had been passed around within the CLP for a few months. With Ben’s connections to the Fabians and being an officer within the Co-operative Party, becoming an MP is a logical political step and to be fair to him – as evidenced by his campaign launch video – he has at least visited the constituency (bonus points for filming half the video in Whitby Ben!).

The second hopeful to put their name forward, really embodies the idea of an establishment, career-driven opportunist in almost every sense. As evidenced by the ever-insightful and informative twitter account @tomorrowsmps (very much worth a follow), Alex Towers’ career background truly towers over the competition holding no less than 3 directorships at DCMS, the BBC and BT.

Surely holding such important roles at these temples of the working-class, Mr Towers will have no problem connecting with the constituency’s areas of extreme economic deprivation and traditionalist working class communities. A man with such a mighty pay cheque will no doubt understand the needs and concerns of a minimum-wage, gig-economy constituency in a deep a nuanced way.

Finally (for the time being), we have perhaps the most reasonable of the three careerist contenders. Alison Hume stood as Labour’s Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner candidate in North Yorkshire in 2021 and so can at least profess to have a vague knowledge of the political dynamics of the local community. Equally she has achieved the backing of the region’s Unison organisation. This at least displays an attempt at trying to come across as a committed trade unionist, which is to be praised. However, I think we all know how little a Union endorsement can actually mean within Labour Party politics…

This all rather begs the question “So who will be these local, socialist candidates destined by history to dominate the selection process and once again revitalise the local party’s campaigning efforts?” Well one name, which all taken into account is a rather obvious one, is that of local councillor Rich Maw. Since being elected to Scarborough Borough Council in 2019, Rich has proved himself to be a very effective and committed local representative, providing constituents with regular updates and holding strong to his principles in votes. This commitment all paid off last spring when Rich was elected to North Yorkshire County Council in his very competitive ward. He defeated not just the Tory candidate but a relatively-strong Independent who came second. The truth is, Rich achieved this victory by slowly building up a sizable personal vote in the ward. Just having the Labour logo next to your name on the ballot paper doesn’t count for anything in this constituency, Maw is an experienced and effective campaigner and campaign leader and there’s no doubt these skills will serve a potential Parliamentary campaign VERY well.

It was then, to both everybody’s and - equally - nobody’s surprise when on the 25th February, Rich posted a statement on his personal Facebook page announcing that his attempt to represent his local community in Parliament had been halted at the first hurdle “My candidacy didn't even reach first interview.” To be clear, this wasn’t the local party rejecting an insufficiently experienced candidate nor was it the local membership expressing their democratic will. In the Labour Party, the longlisting process for Parliamentary candidates his controlled entirely by the party leadership. What is supposed to be an initial filter to remove joke candidates or those who are genuinely inexperienced has now become a tool through which Keir Starmer and his goons have taken complete control of the candidate selection process, by limiting the choices before local members even get to express their views. Want evidence? See the aforementioned @tomorrowsmps twitter account to find out more!

In the comments underneath his post, Rich also outlines that another local, left-winger put their name forward only to similarly be denied even before an initial longlisting interview. So, it seems ol’Keith and his London pals are truly scared of a repeat of the 2018 selection and don’t even want to give the local members a chance to put their support in a reliable local candidate that they know well and trust.

Except…

Another interesting fact one can ascertain from the comments under Rich’s post (with at the time of writing there being a total of 96 such comments all expressing their dismay at these events), is that whilst a few comments are by local members who were sticking with Labour to support Rich or some other local candidate, the VAST MAJORITY are from those who have long-left the party. Ex-members who had already identified that the democratic structures and invigorated environment than once existed has long disappeared.

Very much despite the scenario mirroring the 2018 selection which I envisioned at the start of this article, the fact of the matter is that the membership base that threw their support behind local socialists 5 years ago, no longer exists. Even if a candidate like Rich had gotten themselves onto the ballot, the votes to win that selection no longer exist and the excited and committed base of activists required to run a dramatic and effective general election campaign similarly are non-existent.

This whole corrupt debacle has brought the crisis of democracy and values that has existed within Labour straight to the heart of the local party. Where otherwise the CLP’s exec has been able to ignore the distant destruction of party democracy and justice, it has now come crashing down onto their front door and an exodus of membership shall be the price they’ll pay.

But where shall all these disheartened activists who have been running Labour’s local operations for so many years go now that their party had abandoned them? Only the future can tell…