Hundreds of local Labour members have called on their party to reconsider parachuting in a candidate after the Kemptown MP was unexpectedly barred from standing.
More than 200 people have signed a petition started by the Kemptown and Peacehaven Constituency Labour Party (CLP) ahead of a meeting where new candidate Chris Ward’s selection is set to be rubber stamped.
Mr Ward was announced as the new candidate last week, just a day after the previous MP Lloyd Russell-Moyle was suspended over unspecified allegations dating from 2016.
Journalist Michael Crick, who has been chronicling all the main parties’ selections, tweeted on Thursday afternoon that he was likely to get the seat – before another potential candidate. Nancy Platts, had even been interviewed.
Ms Platts, who has previously been leader of Brighton and Hove City Council and a parliamentary candidate in the same seat, called for an investigation into the fairness of the process.
On Saturday, about 200 people attended a
Now, fellow local members are calling on the party to rescind Mr Ward’s selection and allow the local party to make their own selection.
In a letter accompanying the petition, the CLP’s campaigns officer said: “Principally, our members understand and unconditionally support the seriousness with which the party investigates complaints.
“Notwithstanding, they have expressed concerns regarding the hurried nature of the process for choosing another candidate to fight this election and their consequent lack of agency in this process.
“With well-known and hard-working Labour members such as Nancy Platts active in our community I feel sure that the membership would be reassured and motivated by this approach.
“I believe that we still have time to meet as an executive committee or to arrange an emergency husting on Zoom and that doing so would be a pragmatic decision to ensure both the superlative quality of our candidate and the morale of our members who will with renewed energy and confidence come out and support their (hopefully) next Labour MP.”
Meanwhile, Mr Russell-Moyle said he would not be standing as an independent. He tweeted: “I want a Labour government. I wanted to be part of that but it’s been ripped away.
“Some asked me to go independent. I’ll not stand against Labour but I hope to be back sooner than you think.”
Kemptown has had very strong feelings about out-of-towners when it comes to candidates across all political spectrums.
Nancy Platts is from London and only moved to Kemptown following her selection.
Simon Kirby was a councillor in Pevensey when he was selected.
Des Turner was born in Southampton and educated in Luton and London before coming to Brighton.
Brighton has a transient population, in line with many seaside resorts.
I really don’t think the people here are as parochial as you may think.
It’s a good point, although I would also argue there’s been quite a bit of time passed since their respective candidacies; and the recent issue with the shamed ex-ward councillors has certainly made people more sensitive to where their candidates come from and who selects them.
If that translates to a change in voting, we’ll see in four weeks!
Amazing.
Labour haven’t learned anything about imposing candidates from outside on to Kemptown.
Vote Stewart Stone, LibDems, who lives in the Marina – a local candidate who knows the issues.
It’s perhaps worth noting that Chris Ward was born in Brighton and grew up here.
I understand his parents currently live in Peacehaven.
So it’s not like he’s been parachuted in from space, to stand as the Labour candidate here.
That said, he does not appear to be well known here, and has not worked as a local councillor.
It’s also worth noting that Nancy Platts twice stood as a Brighton parliamentary candidate before, and failed to get in.
Under her leadership of the council Labour also lost their majority when other Labour councillors were suspended under investigations of anti-semitism, and that’s when the Greens gained control of the city council as the majority party. (A dark day indeed, given the mess they then made, and their obvious financial incompetence. )
Ms Platts’ union connections also didn’t seem to help much during the long-running binmen dispute, and with the Hollingbury depot scandal still ongoing.
Note too, that the current council leader, Bella Sankey, has not been put forward as a Kemp Town candidate.
My own view is that Mr Russell-Moyle has grown into his job as the Kemp Town MP in recent years, and has been a hard-working local representative. He certainly listened to all sides, when the Greens tried to close off Madeira Drive.
So it”s a shame he’s not allowed to stand again, and at such short notice.
We do not yet know what the historical allegations against Russell-Moyle are, but it seems wrong to be treated as guilty before the possibility of being proven innocent – when usually it’s the other way round.
The problem seems to be that any Labour candidate has to seem to be squeaky clean nowadays, and its not a level playing field when you see all the scandals so many Tory MPs have been involved with in recent years.
The big plus for Chris Ward as an electable Labour candidate, is that writers like Owen Jones don’t seem to like him.
The Greens did not gain control of B&H as the ‘majority’; they became the largest party (just) as a result of Labour suspending three councillors regarding allegations of anti-Semitism. Hard to see how their alleged behaviour was somehow Nancy Platts’ fault, though.
As to ‘obvious financial incompetence’, Labour were in a position to agree or not agree a budget – it was not purely the Greens’ decision. So it’s a bit perplexing as to why Labour apologists keep chucking this one around, since the party was heavily implicated in all spending decisions taken in the years 2019-2023. And the fact that the Greens took charge at all was down to the Labour factional dance of death that the rest of us have been watching with mounting horror for many years, while the Tories have made hay.
Be interesting to see how your ‘electable’ right-wing managerialist Labour drone (one of the three white men selected by the party across the city) does in the election. He’d have a job to lose the seat given the current political tide, but next time – who knows?
If Keir Starmer can pull a stunt like this, parachuting his no.1 henchman in as Kemptown MP candidate prior to being elected as PM himself, do Labourites honestly think this dictatorial behaviour is going to go away once he’s elected?
Alarm bells should be ringing loud and clear.
This is just a taster of what’s to come under a Starmerist dictatorship.
To quote a commentator elsewhere. Labour started with a Keir and Labour will end with a Keir.
Grounding the conversation slightly, what is your opinion about this apparent purge of the left of the party?
Benjamin, that is a good question, but is it also a loaded one?
Firstly, is that alleged ‘purge’ just the latest slur invented by the anti-Labour media?
I’m finding a lot of media reports about Labour concentrate on internal issues, rather than on the policies proposed. Whereas with the other parties – like the Tories who are currently full of splits, and who have had endless and proven scandals – do not see their individuals challenged at all.
For example, the way the press tried to nail Angela Rayner to the council house cross was despicable. It’s like they’d prefer to silence any working class woman with a voice.
To answer your question, there is certainly a move amongst Starmer’s Labour to grab the centre ground, and that centre ground is what wins elections. It happened in the 1960s under Harold Wilson, just as it later happened under Tony Blair. Neil Kinnock failed to do it, despite an open goal in front of him at the time.
(The concept of a modern ‘purge’ is really just a tabloid creation, to add drama in the modern world of endless news. )
However, if the ‘new’ Labour party are then actually elected, rather than just representing 48% of the vote, then they/we can bring about change.
For sure, I would argue that Tony Blair failed to use his huge parliamentary majority as he should have, failing to fix the roof while the sun was shining, and we usual Labour voters hope Starmer has noted that.
We are all looking for change, not just a tweaked administration.
Under Corbyn the Labour party enjoyed criticising, as outsiders, and that was lively but the party never seemed that electable. Corbyn’s Labour, along with the Momentum group, seemed to have gone down the ideological student lefty route, just as the modern Tories seem to have gone down the right-wing DailyMail or ToryBoy route.
I’m a bit of a lefty ex-student myself, from way back, and I certainly see where Corbyn was coming from – but I also want to see change, and I think we are crying out for more social justice and economic fairness in the way the country is run.
The financial decisions forced on us since Brexit, and with the international wars going on, will make for hard economic decisions, going forward. So the key for an incoming government will be to manage the economy, not just for the rich, or for your Tory mates, but with social justice in mind.
And so maybe the ditching far left ideology is right, just as it’s right to avoid the unthinking cul de sac of far right views.
We also need to ditch the fake-green fantasies that took hold locally when a new generation watched a few David Attenborough programs and they thought they’d got the climate crisis sussed in half a minute.
I have an allotment and I’m very green in the way I grow food – but a lot of the urban Green badge wearers are still like Phelim, stupidly flying to a climate conference because they think they themselves are more important.
Above all, we need to be wary of adopting policies that are pushed by self-serving pressure groups – and in Brighton that resulted in our Green council wasting so much money on the Beryl bikes contract, which re-established a well-intentioned bike share scheme that is now not fit for purpose. How could they fuck up so badly?
Of course, the Greens won’t get a look in at the general election, and we will end up with three Labour MPs, who are all very different. At least one of our MPs will be a cabinet minister, and a good one.
In the meantime, for these endless weeks of campaigning, let the Tories continue with their divisive and reactionary headline approach, and if some see Starmer as dull, then so be it. My bank manager is also very dull, but I trust him. It’s a good things that the clock is now finally ticking as we await change.
If instead, you’d prefer another Boris or a Farage, then go watch Love island or Big Brother or Eurovision – for your diet of drama and endless bullshit.
I will vote for pragmatism and slightly dull common sense – over drama and catchy headlines – every time.
I’ve written too much. Well done if you’ve made it this far.
I’m not expecting you to agree with me, and voting day has been set. Let’s have a good turnout. Above all, I want the next generation to have a future they feel they can plan for.
It’s a well articulated set of thoughts, thank you for sharing them. I agree reluctantly that the centre ground does appear to be where Labour needs to be to win elections, Corbyn was widely critised for being unelectable because of his viewpoints on a number of issues placing him to the far left.
I think the argument against extreme left or right is a very reasonable one. An element of pragmatism in balance.
Let’s see the charges and the evidence as we have a right to see what these are if he wants to ever stand again. They must have been serious.
Or they may not. It will be interesting to see either way.
If they weren’t serious it would have been made public.
Well, even if they were serious, the public should still be told why he was suspended.
I suspect either way, you would not want to prejudice the process, so keeping the public out of it seems reasonable to me. Until the process is complete, at least.
He grew up in Brighton… so has some local predigree.
The whole thing feels like a big stich up
Momentum is regarded as a toxic brand by the mainstream
Please return our previous chosen candidate.
Please return Russell Lloyd Moyles.