Ahead of the looming general election, moderate Labour MPs are understandably upset by an instruction they say the party has given to suspend the selection of new candidates in seats where the serving MP is retiring or has defected.
They’ve been told the reason is to ‘concentrate on the trigger ballot processes’ – or the deselection of usually moderate MPs who have alienated activists.
See the below email by a Labour official for detail.
What moderate MPs fear is that there is tacit support from Labour’s leadership for a purge of MPs from the right of the party.
They are worried that the suspension of the selection process in seats where there is already a vacancy will allow Labour’s ruling NEC to impose candidates it favours from the left shortly before the election (because there won’t be time for the normal selection process).
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