This Once Great Movement Of Ours

[CumbrianLefty]

Louise Haigh my beloved

She's genuinely excellent.

[Blair]

Labour selections seem to be moving forward.

There’s fewer retirements than I realised- seems about only 10 or so, of which only two are in London- party staffers will be upset no doubt!

I mention as Kate Greens seat has selected- they’ve gone for the council leader in Trafford.

[Oryxslayer]

Labour selections seem to be moving forward.

There’s fewer retirements than I realised- seems about only 10 or so, of which only two are in London- party staffers will be upset no doubt!

I mention as Kate Greens seat has selected- they’ve gone for the council leader in Trafford.

Quick Question about the process: Are these selections being made based on the present lines with the expectation of a early poll, or based on the new lines to be implemented, but might see adjustments?

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Present constituencies. It's usually then easy enough to make adjustments for boundary changes based on what share of a constituency is in a new one etc.

[Blair]

Wales could end up being very vicious just because of the number who might be left without chairs.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Wales could end up being very vicious just because of the number who might be left without chairs.

Though, amusingly, this will be as much of a problem for the Tories now thanks to '19 gains in North Wales and the elimination of the LibDems in Mid Wales...

[Oryxslayer]

Thanks for the answer. Part of my mind was on Wales, but I was more thinking about the 'new' seats in the shires and London that should be safe for their respective parties. One would expect the cadre's who lost their seats to want new ones, but these are places that everyone with ambition would play for.

[Blair]

Anyone have any wild predictions on the Durham outcome?

It’s rumoured to be next week and for some reason I’m still convinced he’s going to be fined.

[CumbrianLefty]

Some people "close to" Starmer seem to think he is genuinely confident he won't be fined.

(though of course that *could* be a front/bluff)

[MaxQue]

Some people "close to" Starmer seem to think he is genuinely confident he won't be fined.

(though of course that *could* be a front/bluff)

If those people are his advisers, I would be worried if I was Starmer.

[Pericles]

Some people "close to" Starmer seem to think he is genuinely confident he won't be fined.

(though of course that *could* be a front/bluff)

If he wasn't confident, he wouldn't have made the pledge. He's the lawyer so hopefully he's right but presumably he doesn't have an inside source and actually know what they'll do.

[YL]

Wales could end up being very vicious just because of the number who might be left without chairs.

Though, amusingly, this will be as much of a problem for the Tories now thanks to '19 gains in North Wales and the elimination of the LibDems in Mid Wales...

The Mid Wales Tories are actually OK on the initial proposals as both their seats are expanded into neighbouring areas rather than abolished.

Retirements may solve some of these problems.  For Labour, Wayne David in Caerphilly has already announced his retirement, which would leave the proposed Newport West & Caerphilly for Ruth Jones, unless Labour actually select a new candidate for Caerphilly.  The Labour MP who seems most likely to lose out on the initial proposals is Beth Winter (Cynon Valley).

Meanwhile for the Tories it seems unlikely that Jamie Wallis (whose Bridgend seat is effectively abolished; the name is transferred to a successor to the existing Ogmore) or Rob Roberts (whose "Delyn" seat might provide a berth for one of the North Wales Tories who would otherwise be seatless) will stand again.

[CumbrianLefty]

David Lammy has had better days than recently, that's for sure.

[Blair]

David Lammy has had better days than recently, that's for sure.

I was going to say well  ‘well at least he was honest’ before realising ‘no actually the Shadow Foreign Secretary should prepare before appearing on TV’ and anyway should know the basics about a strike before condemning them as confidently as he did. And was probably told to put out that statement.

If he didn’t know he should have just said ‘we’ll look further into that’.

On another point  Lou Haigh was asked about disciplinary matters for Labour MPs and said ‘it’s above my pay grade.’

Lammy was asked and basically said they should feel the long arm of the law. Had no reason to.

[Blair]

For older people isn’t it in Labour folklore that Lammy choked during a post office (?) debate when he was a junior minister and was generally seen as a relatively dull (in the sense of talent) minister.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

He's pretty clearly had a telling off. But, as I've said before, I think the assumption that senior frontbenchers will automatically know the line to take during media appearances because 'surely it's obvious' that we still sometimes see is something that needs to go.

[EastAnglianLefty]

He's pretty clearly had a telling off. But, as I've said before, I think the assumption that senior frontbenchers will automatically know the line to take during media appearances because 'surely it's obvious' that we still sometimes see is something that needs to go.

Of course, when it finally does we'll no doubt gets months of anonymous leaks about control-freakery.

[CumbrianLefty]

For older people isn’t it in Labour folklore that Lammy choked during a post office (?) debate when he was a junior minister and was generally seen as a relatively dull (in the sense of talent) minister.

He was still very young then tbf.

Though less excusable is the lionisation of him by #FBPE types as some sort of passionate radical.

[JimJamUK]

Though less excusable is the lionisation of him by #FBPE types as some sort of passionate radical.

I did a Twitter search just after his strike comments and a good proportion of the popular Tweets were FBPE die-hards slagging him off for supporting Labour’s current Brexit policy.

[Blair]

Mike Amesbury has quit the frontbench- he was local Govt Minister, and before that was Housing Minister.

He was v respected for his work on Building safety and cladding.

The second frontbencher to quit recently…

[EastAnglianLefty]

He claims it's because he represents a marginal seat and needs to spend more time working there. The initial proposed boundary changes make his seat a fair bit safer.

[Blair]

A fitting end to the Stroud selection- the party blocked the local council leader from the shortlist and only put two people on it. Of course The banter outcome happened- members picked the random local GP over the ex MEP who was rumoured to be the favourite.

Not the first or last time this will happen- is a tale as old as time in THIGMOO

[CumbrianLefty]

A fitting end to the Stroud selection- the party blocked the local council leader from the shortlist and only put two people on it. Of course The banter outcome happened- members picked the random local GP over the ex MEP who was rumoured to be the favourite.

Not the first or last time this will happen- is a tale as old as time in THIGMOO

Rather like what happened in Wakefield, though that one had the twin mitigations that 1) yes it was a byelection where - like it or not - different rules apply and have done for a while, and 2) in that case the "local" some weren't happy about being excluded also didn't live in the seat anyway.

This one already seems to have had some nasty fallout, with a clutch of Labour members quitting the party along with the council leader in question. The man selected has his work cut out smoothing out things locally even before it comes to actually winning what is a key target seat.

And until now the mainstream media was willing to overlook the often dubious tactics of party HQ in selections under Starmer in the supposed greater good of crushing the always hated left - but this episode has been so blatant that it appears that omerta has finally been broken.

[EastAnglianLefty]

Though I think the assumption that this was a stitch-up in favour of the former MEP is mistaken, because MEPs tend not to be widely known outside their actual home area and local GPs tend to be fairly popular candidates with selectorates. It should instead be viewed as a stitch-up against a candidate.

[CumbrianLefty]

I can see that viewpoint, but there are certainly those in party HQ delusional enough to think that the "anointed choice" would simply have been accepted with little or no demur.

It seems a combination of that and Cornell having some (fairly mild) leftist affiliations got mingled in what proved to be a highly toxic mix.

One can certainly see selections being raised as a hot topic at this year's conference, put it that way.