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Wakefield by election candidate woes for ...

Wakefield by election candidate woes for Starmer as CLP Executive all quit.

May 14, 2022

Wakefield CLP quit en masse as Starmer is set to impose a Labour candidate on them from outside the area. So the Wakefield by-election is heading our way and Labour have been going through their selection process, shortlisting their candidates, to two people not from Wakefield as Keir Starmer continues his policy of snatching defeat from the jaws of victory over petty factionalism. Three local candidates were kept off the shortlist, including the deputy leader of Wakefield Council, Jack Hemingway, who has committed the heinous crime of being a socialist and still giving a damn about other people. Such is the disgust at this move, something Starmer insisted he would never do, another lie he can chalk up to his name, that 16 of the Wakefield CLP executive have quit over it, some even leaving the party completely. It also contravenes a rule change made at conference last year to ensure local’s had a significant influence in candidate selection, again proving Labour Conference is meaningless if Starmer doesn’t like a given outcome. Labour got away with this crap in Batley because the preferred candidate happened to be local, but this time, they’ve just torn everything up to impose their preference. Labour is back to parachuting in candidates from elsewhere, who will do exactly as they’re told by the Labour leadership. we’re back to the bad old days, but this time local members are not standing for it and are walking away. If you’re still trying to figure out how Starmer managed to do just so badly in the local elections last week, in all those by-elections he’s so far challenged, its because activists are leaving, walking away and they’re taking their votes with them too. Labour relies on its boots on the ground army and Starmer just keeps p**sing them off, driving them away. So now that he’s decimated his local organisation ahead of this by-election, the chosen shortlist consists of Kate Dearden and Simon Lightwood. Kate Dearden is a former staffer for Kezia Dugdale in Scotland and for Blairite Scottish MP Ian Murray. Her linkIn makes for fascinating reading not least her interest in the Tony Blair Institute. How did you make the shortlist Kate? Though of course if you were in any doubt as to her thinking, here’s a surviving tweet from her not quite complete clearout of her twitter history, celebrating the expulsion of Ken Livingstone to Jeremy Corbyn. The other candidate is Simon Lightwood, reputedly establishment through and through and was allegedly an advisor to the former Labour MP Mary Creagh, who was herself parachuted into the area, so you can understand how sick locals are of being told they aren’t good enough to represent their own patch and if that’s the case, perhaps Labour aren’t actually good enough to represent them.

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