Labour announced the party’s candidate for Brighton Kemptown and Peacehaven this evening – a day after Lloyd Russell-Moyle said that he had been suspended.
Chris Ward, who spent six years working for the Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer, will stand in place of Mr Russell-Moyle who won the seat from the Conservatives in 2017 and held it at the 2019 general election.
The party said: “Labour has today (Thursday 30 May) announced its candidate to contest the Brighton Kemptown and Peacehaven constituency in the general election on Thursday 4 July.
“Chris was born and grew up in Brighton and has spent decades fighting for a brighter future for our country.”
After his selection, Mr Ward said: “It’s an enormous honour to be selected as Labour’s candidate for Brighton Kemptown and Peacehaven – the city I grew up in and the city I love.
“After 14 years of Conservative chaos, we have the chance on July 4 to vote for change and for a brighter future for Britain.
“I can’t wait to get started and I look forward to joining our members to take that message of change for our community.”
Not a carpetbagger then
Not just a carpetbagger, but a lobbyist for clients including gambling giant Flutter, finance firms like UBS and Blackstone, and oil driller Navitas Petroleum.
Won’t be getting my vote totally right wing careerist. Nothing socialist about him or his views.
Absolutely!
Seems like for socialism we need to vote Lib Dem now especially with their stance of. Rejoining the eu
So much for localism – Keir can’t argue one way and face the other. Were local Labour Party members at least consulted? The conservatives are criticised for parachuting but it’s ok for Keir to do the same?? I think not.
Red Hair to Brown Nose?
Looks like Labour can’t now attack the Greens for having a London candidate (even though he was born here).
You’d have thought Labour would have learnt about hoisting a candidate without local members support by now.
Well they can, arguing they can’t is a classic tu quoque logical fallacy.
You should probably include some details of his current position and career history. He’s not just an empty suit. He’s much worse than that. I’m not a particular fan of Elaine Hills but she’s a thousand times the person this political vacuum is.
During last year’s local election, Elaine Hills showed clearly she was not interested in listening to residents in Hanover – she is a fully paid up member of the Green lunatics.
Yes, really, a truly awful councillor. She was put up as the Green candidate in Kemptown as the no hope candidate, she’s now in a position where’s she’s very likely to win. Labour snatching defeat from the jaws of victory again.
I can’t see that happening, at best the Greens will split the vote and let in a blue PR consultant rather than a red lobbyist for clients including gambling giant Flutter, finance firms like UBS and Blackstone, and oil driller Navitas Petroleum.
A Starmerite drone who’s never done anything for Brighton and Hove and is not about to fight for their constituents if elected then? Does he even live here?
Not our candidate.
Such convenient timing for this allegation. It stinks to be honest . Left wing candidate out and right wing puppet in . Myself & family have been staunch Labour supporters forever , but no more . Labour is no longer labour . It’s lost its way . We’re done with them. This is the last straw . I hope all of these people who are no longer wanted in the party form another party a bit like the breakaway tories . Jeremy Corbin can lead them .
Right on!
Whats the alternative…another 5 years of Tory dictatorship …?
https://www.electoralcalculus.co.uk/prediction_main.html
Whilst I didn’t like Lloyd’s politics, he was a good MP. Won’t be voting for his successor – it stinks!
I don’t know anything about Chris Ward so can’t comment on his career to date or his political views but surely it isn’t fair to describe him as ‘right-wing’: he isn’t on the same page as the likes of Rees-Mogg. I agree that this sequence of events is a shambles and begs a lot of questions about what’s behind it all. But who are you going to vote for, if not Chris Ward? Who would you rather see in Downing Street? It isn’t my constituency so I don’t have to face those questions but all electors in Kemptown will have to do so. I’ve lived through 14 years of of the Sainted Caroline Lucas, a paragon of principled policies, who has never had to try to put those policies into practice, fully costed and with all wrinkles and unexpected snags ironed out. A protest vote could bring in a similarly principled MP, who will similarly never have the chance to put those principles into practical legislation.
You can easily find out about Chris Ward and the lobbying company he works for at https://tribunemag.co.uk/2023/12/labour-for-sale
Current opinion polling puts the Tories on 66 seats. Which party will form the next government is irrelevant.
https://www.electoralcalculus.co.uk/prediction_main.html
Can you please update this article with his current job. He’s a lobbyist for a company that represents fossil fuels and gambling companies: https://x.com/karl_fh/status/1796183551370551440
Why doesn’t Lloyd Russell-Moyle stand as an Independent candidate in Brighton Kemptown?
I imagine for the same reason he can’t stand for Labour, got to clear this conveniently timed allegation.
I suggested that to him in an e-mail a couple of weeks back. I must be psychic!
He made a statement about this question recently. Didn’t want to split the Labour vote, and wants Labour to win.
Tory in disguise.
https://tribunemag.co.uk/2023/12/labour-for-sale: “Ward now heads up Hanbury’s ‘Labour Unit’”
“Hanbury’s current clients include gambling giant Flutter, finance firms like UBS and Blackstone, and oil driller Navitas Petroleum.” Sounds like a fossil fuel lobbyist who has no qualms about propping up an industry that makes large amounts of money exploiting vulnerable people.
Nice.
Need a bit of discipline in theLabour Party. RML not fit for purpose IHMO.
Russell blotted his copybook long ago I suspect – especially with the silly kidnapping of the orb in parliament. This is Labours chance to clear out some of the momentum radicals before an election. It’s grown up politics. We need a Labour goverment that is united – not fractured and broken with momentum and corbynites. This is our chance to have a better government and bring us back to the centre left.
A fantastic move by Kier. This man has shown himself to be a petulant child of student union calibre over and over again. Look at this clip of him behaving appalling slagging off the leadership at the Party Conference in 2021. For all of you defending Lloyd he and others like him are the reason Labour fails time and time again at election time. They cannibalise themselves with internal nonsense the likes of which this unhinged individual whips up. I’d want decent, loyal, emotionally stable and tempered individuals in my court too. Not some one who bullies women for daring to have an opinion other than the extremist one, he owes Rosie Duffield Labour MP a huge apology for his mistreatment of her. He is unable to engage in sensible debate and has no place in government. I welcome Chris and hope the grownups are back in the room. https://youtu.be/Qk-z2OOrmWw?si=LfF7B_eYq4frzSb1
Couldn’t agree more
Well, I know one candidate who would have boosted the labour majority and that’s Lloyd Russell-Moyle. Let’s see how this Chris person does on 4th July!
Couldn’t agree more.
RML ignored my request to put a question to Wes Streeting during Covid. He said it was of no interest to him!
I was horrified my MP acted in such a high handed/condescending way. After much effort he backed down, apologised and sent my question. I’m not sure RML likes women with opinions. In meantime I hope we all get behind Chris Ward.
Sounds like a reasoned response .
Corbyn & his ilk, despite their attributes are never going to be electable………. lets get rid of the Tories first then move on .
Lets face the altenative………..another 5 years of Tory Rule is unthinkable ……..lets unite & kick out the Tories …..these internal squablles are playing into the hands of the Tories ……..they want a fractured Labour party….thats how they win votes & get elected
I agree we want to boot out the tories but we don’t want them in the Labour Party.
Chris
This absolutely reeks of croneyism.
I am disgusted with this. Lloyd has represented my area for the past few years and I am keen to support him, finally, in this election. I desperately want a change of government, but have no desire to vote for this new guy being air dropped in. Utter shambles. Let’s see what those allegations against Lloyd are please. And if not upheld, does he get his MP position back? If not, he’s basically been sacked for no reason. Is that even legal?
Completely agree with you. I want change but not in this top down heavy handed manner
I will back the mp who has worked tirelessly, generously, and with a genuine interest in equalities. Chris Hambury’s profile does not evidence these criteria. Lloyd Russell moyle demonstrated these criteria. I won’t be voting for Chris Ward. If starmer initiated legalities mean Lloyd can’t stand, can Nancy Plackett be a candidate?
Well clearly he’s a pen for hire who will say anything, promote anything as long as he gets paid. It’s irrelevant really – I believe we will still return a Labour candidate because the dyed in the wool will still vote for this chap even though there’s noise about defecting to Green. Plus ca change.
https://unherd.com/2023/01/the-labour-party-has-a-woman-problem/
This is sufficient for me.
He also claimed expenses when he was holding on his Councillor post after he became an MP and sending letters saying he would not deal with letters sent by constituents.
As Starmer’s speechwriter during his campaign to win the Labour leadership, I wonder if he was aware that Starmer would abandon 9 out of ten of his pledges.
I wonder if he still supports the Iraq war, as he reputedly did.
I wonder how much time he’ll have for his constituents, and how much time he’ll have for the industries and companies he’s currently a lobbyist for.
Just seems to be part of a much wider purge of the left for the party to bring it into the centre. Politics is a brutal business…
The saga of Labour’s poor candidate selection process is a gift to their opponents that just keeps on giving.
Following the top brass’s selection of the mother and daughter combo from Leicester, we are treated to the purging of LRM and the imposition of a London-based lobbyists and former bag carrier for Keir Starmer, but not before they’d put former PCC and Labour Leader of the Council Nancy Platts through a faux remote selection interview. The decision to impose the lobbyist bag carrier Chris Ward was leaked by journalist Michael Crick, while the Platts interview was in progress.
She’s called for an investigation, which is likely to take as long as it did in the case of Diane Abbott and probably the one for Lloyd Russell-Moyle!
Sent from my iPhone