A local Labour Party member and trade union delegate reports from Jeremy Corbyn’s constituency.

Many Islington North members are confused and angry about the recent announcement that the national Labour Party had taken over the selection of a Labour Prospective Parliamentary Candidate for their constituency.

This comes after the CLP, as a whole, came together to run a very effective Mayoral campaign for Sadiq Khan, despite being denied its own access to Organise. The only access was through Labour Party employees.  During the campaign a significant amount of long-standing and active members, who did not necessarily agree with their MP on all issues, were very concerned about the democratic deficit in the manner in which the CLP was being treated. The recent announcement will have exacerbated this feeling. 

Without access to Organise, it is very difficult to explain what is now happening but, where local members can be contacted through friendship or community networks, it is being explained that:

Islington North CLP members have been informed that the National Executive Committee (NEC) has opened its own form of parliamentary candidate selection procedure for Islington North.   There was no prior consultation with Islington North’s democratically elected CLP officers or delegates. Trade union and ward and affiliated organisation delegates to the General Committee will not be able to seek the views of those who elected them to represent them, as there is no recognition of the need to respect the democratic processes and timetables of trade unions or affiliated organisations. The national Party has suspended the use of Organise, its own Labour Party communications system, within Islington and therefore members are prevented from meeting together to discuss nominations or candidates in wards.

 The national Party has delayed triggering any selection in Islington North, despite the fact that the significant size of the Labour majority indicated that this should have been undertaken many months ago.

 The selection process has been truncated to a mere couple of weeks and will take place on line with a shortlist selected by the NEC and not the members of Islington North. This alone contradicts a previous statement by Keir Starmer that “local Party members should select their candidates for every election.”

 The proposed process shows no respect for local democracy upon which the Labour Party was founded and  which it says will be central to its messaging for the forthcoming General Election. The CLP was not asked whether it would depart from the established procedure under which it could choose its own Prospective Parliamentary Candidate from amongst any Labour Party member in good standing, shortlisted by the members of Islington North.

An undemocratic selection process is likely to harm the Labour Party’s efforts to defeat the Conservatives and to achieve the real change this country and our communities in Islington North desperately need.

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