To Labour NEC: We demand selection process to be reinstated!

Selection processes for parliamentary candidates are well advanced in many Constituency Labour Parties but the processes have now been taken over by the NEC.

The artificial justification for this undemocratic imposition is the imminent General Election and the need to speed up the process although the change is being imposed even when it will make little or no difference to the timing. The NEC now propose imposed longlists of candidates, with the following short list having negligible input from the local selection committees’ representatives and democratic nominations by-passed.

This is unacceptable. For many months it was thought that there was a strong possibility of a General Election in the Autumn but the NEC was delaying the CLPs to start the selections even though in some cases, e.g. Enfield North, there has been no Labour candidate for eight months due to MP defections. The go ahead was given in September, only to be halted a few weeks later. This is absolutely undemocratic and indeed looks like a stitch-up.

Labour Party is a socialist, democratic party. Many local candidates represent these values and there is a strong feeling among grass roots members that they want to be represented by the local candidates. These wishes must be respected!

Socialism is only going to thrive if grass roots democracy is respected!

We demand the selection processes to be reinstated!