Labour MPs will still have to face internal reselection battles despite the impending snap election, the party’s ruling body has decided.
The National Executive Committee (NEC) decided to prioritise so-called ‘trigger ballots’ for all sitting MPs, forcing them to win the support of local party members and trade unionists to avoid being challenged.
But the NEC opted to suspend the selection of candidates for other parliamentary seats held by opponents or where the MP was retiring before the
election expected this autumn.
The move swiftly prompted criticism that allies of
Jeremy Corbyn will now impose their favoured contenders in a swath of constituencies in a fast-tracked, centralised process ahead of polling day.
During a marathon meeting ahead of this weekend’s annual conference, the 39-strong ruling body agreed to draft a special paper on the process for all outstanding selections already underway or yet to start.
Local members will have an as yet unspecified input to the process, but it will be streamlined and won’t entail the full selection powers for constituency
Labour parties used between election times.
Critics suspect the largely centralised process will allow Momentum and trade unions to carve up several seats, including constituencies like Coventry South, Newcastle Under Lyme and Bassetlaw where MPs have in recent weeks announced they are retiring.
In many seats where MPs have defected, such as Chris Leslie’s Nottingham East, the process may spark fresh anger among activists who feel they are being robbed of full rights to shortlist and pick their own candidate.
Many Labour MPs believe the time and effort of the trigger ballot process could be better spent on campaigning against the Tories and Lib Dems in their constituencies.
With Corbyn widely expected to agree to a snap election in late November or early December, backbenchers have been lobbying for their selections to be suspended along with other seats.
But the NEC decided the triggers process - under new rules requiring just a third of branches to demand a challenge to a sitting MP - would still go ahead.
Few Labour MPs have so far been ‘triggered’ but all have had to fight locally to get enough branches to support them.
Deputy leader Tom Watson told HuffPost he could not attend the NEC meeting because he was attending his final trigger ballot meeting in West Bromwich on Tuesday night.