Murad Qureshi doubts it.
Celebrating last week’s mid-term election results in the USA, we shouldn’t forget that many of those elected would not have made it as Labour candidates here. The distinct political trajectories of progressive figures in the United States, such as Abdul El-Sayed and Zohran Mamdani, highlight fundamental differences between the American primary system and the candidate selection processes of the UK Labour Party.
While both figures built political brands around democratic socialism, grassroots insurgencies and challenges to established party lines, the institutional mechanics of the Labour Party make the emergence of similar candidates significantly less likely.
The most significant structural barrier lies in how candidates are selected. In the United States, primary elections allow insurgent candidates to appeal directly to the electorate. Candidates like El-Sayed, who ran in the Democratic senatorial primary in Michigan, can run on the Democratic ballot without needing the formal endorsement of the party leadership.
In contrast, the UK Labour Party exercises tight central control over its candidate selections. Firstly, the National Executive Committee (NEC) possesses long-standing powers to shortlist, endorse, or veto prospective parliamentary candidates. Then there is due diligence and stringent vetting procedures. Candidates with records of open dissent against the Party leadership, controversial social media histories, or participation in unauthorized political actions are frequently blocked from candidate shortlists before local Party members ever get to vote.
Furthermore, the electoral and party systems are different. Britain’s parliamentary government imposes strict party discipline that discourages electoral platform divergence. In the UK parliamentary system, the Party functions as a tight unit designed to form a government. Frontbenchers and backbenchers are expected to follow the whip and vote along party lines. Candidates who run on platforms that fundamentally challenge the national Party’s official manifesto face immediate friction with the leadership.
There are no local primaries. Unlike in US states, where candidates run for localized district or state-level offices with substantial autonomy over their platform, Labour candidates stand for election under a single national Party brand tightly managed by the leader’s office.
There are also ideological frictions and foreign policy differences. Both El-Sayed and Mamdani have positioned themselves on the left flank of American politics, advocating for policies like universal healthcare and expressing vocal criticisms of established US foreign policy, particularly regarding the Middle East.
Within the modern Labour Party, the Labour leadership under Keir Starmer has consistently enforced strict boundaries around foreign policy positioning, particularly concerning Israel and Palestine. Expressing views outside the established parliamentary Party line has previously resulted in the withdrawal of the whip or exclusion from candidate shortlists. On the economy too, Labour’s national strategy has focused on presenting a Party of fiscal responsibility and economic moderation to win back key swing constituencies, creating an environment that actively resists democratic socialist platform commitments.
Are there alternative avenues for independents in local politics in the UK? While figures with platforms similar to El-Sayed or Mamdani face steep barriers to becoming official Labour candidates, similar political energy in the UK often manifests itself through alternative political vehicles. Left-leaning figures excluded from Labour shortlists or stripped of the Party whip have increasingly run as independent candidates in parliamentary and local elections. Municipal politics and local council elections also sometimes provide avenues for grassroots left politics, though national visibility remains heavily constrained compared to the US.
Ultimately, the American system allows candidates to adopt the Democratic label through primary elections, regardless of party leadership approval. The Labour Party’s centralized structure, emphasis on Party discipline, and strict candidate vetting make it functionally difficult for similar insurgent candidates to secure nomination under the Labour banner.
Murad Qureshi was a member of the London Assembly from 2004 to 2016 and from 2020 to 2021. He blogs at http://www.muradqureshi.com/
Image: Abdul El-Sayed https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Abdul_El-Sayed_meet-and-greet_by_Conlan_Houston_5.jpg. Source: https://www.flickr.com/photos/197161005@N08/54882601138/. Author: Conlan Houston, licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license.
