It is getting harder and harder for some of the political parties to find good quality candidates who are willing to put themselves through the experience of standing for election. So, when someone local who has worked flat out in the constituency for years is prepared to stand, most sensible political parties would bite their hand off. Yet both of the two biggest parties have been busy blocking hardworking local candidates.
Conservative candidate selections
The Conservatives seem to have been so surprised by their own leader’s snap election that they’ve been rushing round like crazy trying to get selection processes completed. Nevertheless, central office has found time to parachute into constituencies people who know next to nothing about an area but are loyalists looking for a home.
In Basildon, the local MP announced he was standing down months ago but no contest was held despite constant requests from the local party. Instead, Richard Holden, the MP for North West Durham, was inserted into the seat under an obscure ruling that allowed the central party to make the decision in urgent circumstances. Many of the local activists are so cross that they are refusing to campaign for him.
And Labour candidate selections
The Labour Party has also been busy blocking local candidates. There are high profile candidates like Diane Abbott who have been famously blocked, unblocked, blocked again and then finally unblocked again. Other less well-known figures have been treated every bit as badly.
Faiza Shaheen appears to have worked flat out in Chingford and Woodford for years to get herself in a position to be elected in a close contest. She is a young mother who got herself an Oxbridge education through hard work and intelligence instead of via privilege. She also happens to be a Muslim who is deeply upset over the things that are taking place in Gaza. For saying so and for liking the occasional tweet from a member of the Green Party her candidature has been blocked. Without even the courtesy of a polite and dignified explanation. She is now standing as an Independent.
Too much centralised control from Labour?
In Yorkshire much the same has happened to figures who have strong local support but are not liked by the National Executive Committee because they have too much tendency to think for themselves. At the last general election Brian McDaid stood in Skipton and Ripon for Labour.
Despite contesting the seat with him when I stood for the Greens, I recognised an honest and intelligent opponent who was sincere about what he was standing for. He has spent much of the last five years campaigning to raise his profile to maximise his party’s vote in a constituency where they have historically struggled.
Then someone in party central office decided that they didn’t like a tweet he sent 12 years ago setting out some of the facts about deaths in Palestine. He was summarily removed from the selection shortlist at very short notice. His tweets about the way he was treated are well worth reading and listening to. They represent a shocking disregard for a well-respected local figure and an absolute determination to stamp out any risk of dissent.
This shoddy treatment of those who dare to disagree with some aspects of centrally set policy is a deeply worrying trend. Labour are hoping to win power with a big majority. If they get it, then there will no doubt be great celebrations. Yet giving any party a majority of over 100 seats is a very risky business. It puts the leader in complete control. If that leader has organised a purge of any candidates who might occasionally disagree with the party line, then there is real cause for concern.
A question of balance
Do we really want to give this much power to a prime minister who was so slow to call for a ceasefire in Gaza and is still only prepared to review arms sales to Netanyahu’s government. Or endorse his current views on staying out of the EU single market? Or back weakening planning laws that even the Tories wouldn’t scrap? Or increasing – yes you heard it right – increasing the use of the private sector in the NHS? Or building clumsy overpriced nuclear power stations? Or increasing defence spending to 2.5% of GDP and wasting much of the money on four new submarines whilst holding to Conservative plans for cuts in real terms public spending?
There is a theory that if we just get rid of the Conservatives and usher in a Labour government all will be fine and it will be possible to push that new government onto a more radical stance. Right now, that is looking like a very naïve hope. The direction of travel of the leader of the Labour Party has been from left to right. At speed. What is to stop him from moving even further to the right once in power?
How are the independent-minded members of the party going to get the power and influence to get him to adopt more radical policies if he becomes convinced that a move to the right secured him a massive majority?
Who you vote out matters. Who you vote in and what they do with power matters a lot more.
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