Labour’s leftwingers are marching ahead in selection battles to choose the party’s new candidates for the expected general election.
An analysis by the Guardian has shown that the left slate is currently ahead and likely to win several more candidate selections in the next two weeks.
Despite a surge for the party’s centrists over the weekend, with several unexpected wins in the Midlands and north of England, Momentum said the left was providing the “new generation” of potential MPs for the Labour party.
Claims of centrally organised “stitch-ups” by the office of the Labour leader, Jeremy Corbyn, have dominated selection battles so far. Concerns have been raised that local candidates are being deliberately left off longlists created by the national executive committee in favour of people on the left with a national profile, but the party denies this is the case.
A Momentum spokesperson said: “We’re very happy to see a new generation of leftwing MP candidates being selected in safe Labour seats across the country.
“This is down to the hard graft of local activists and the widespread support among grassroots Labour members for a new generation of leftwing MPs committed to backing a radical, transformative agenda when in government.”
Of the 33 seats where a new Labour candidate must be chosen due to the sitting MP retiring, defecting to another party or currently being under suspension, so far 12 seats have gone to a Momentum-backed candidate, compared with seven for centrists.
Over the weekend, those opposing Corbyn’s leadership hailed the result for the ultra-safe seat of Vauxhall in south London, where Corbyn’s former political secretary Katy Clark was heavily outvoted in favour of Florence Eshalomi, the London assembly member for Lambeth and Southwark.
In leave-voting Bassetlaw, Nottinghamshire, a remain-backing former London councillor, Sally Gimson, won the selection ahead of two leftwing challengers. The Momentum-backed candidate in Blyth Valley, Northumberland, also missed out to a local government figure.
Elsewhere in non-Labour-held seats, Momentum’s vice-chair Emina Ibrahim lost to a local councillor in Finchley and Golders Green, north London, to challenge the sitting Tory Mike Freer, and ex-Labour MP Luciana Berger, who is now standing for the Liberal Democrats in the seat.
Luke Akehurst, secretary of the centre-left group Labour First, said: “If Labour returns the same number of MPs, the hard left could get a minimum of 44 MPs, and a maximum of 55.
“They are not going to have to worry about not getting their leadership candidate on the ballot paper, which is a big moral thing for them, but it’s hardly the dramatic reshaping of the parliamentary Labour party that they dreamt of.”
He said the centre-left side of the party had had success in Ashfield, Bassetlaw, Blyth Valley, Cynon Valley, Enfield North, Vauxhall and Ynys Môn so far.
In Poplar and Limehouse, east London, the Met police were called to the selection ballot after people said they felt intimidated as hundreds of party members tried to pour into a church to vote.
According to reports in the Evening Standard, hundreds of people turned out to vote for Corbyn supporter and Momentum-backed Apsana Begum following the retirement of longstanding MP Jim Fitzpatrick.
Video footage showed people cramming to get into St Paul’s church in Bow Common.
The party said it was confident the process had been run correctly.
A Labour insider from the soft-left wing of the party said the five results from over the weekend show that the grip of Karie Murphy, Corbyn’s former chief of staff who has been seconded to oversee the party’s general election campaign, was weakening.
They said: “Karie Murphy’s grip is slipping. Where she cannot stitch up the shortlist, and even in some places where she has, she is failing to get her ‘chosen one’ selected.
… There is a moderate fightback across the country. Partly because members are less bothered by Corbyn but party because the ‘stitch and fix’ is back-firing and members don’t like their selection being decided by national party staff.”
The 12 seats that have gone to left candidates are in Barrow, Birkenhead, Bury South, Ealing North, Ilford South, Liverpool Wavertree, Nottingham East, Penistone & Stocksbridge, Poplar & Limehouse, Rother Valley, Sheffield Hallam and Stockport.
