Can Starmer overcome his Hartlepool problem?

Labour have picked their candidate in Hartlepool ahead of the rest of the pack. Unfortunately for them, they have chosen poorly. More than that, the candidate himself and the way he was selected have put Labour’s wider problems clearly on display.

For a start, just so we can get it out of the way, the fact that the term ‘Tory MILFs’ was prominent in the news all weekend doesn’t say a lot on its own about a wise candidate selection by Labour. This, in case you missed it, refers to some social media posts Paul Williams was responsible for many years ago that were a little less than politically correct towards women.

Now I feel strongly that people shouldn’t be held responsible for every single thing they put out on Twitter ten years ago, so I don’t have a particular problem with it and I suspect the voters of Hartlepool won’t either.