Does Brown face another "Scottish Blaenau Gwent"?
A juicy Labour punch-up is looming in the Lanarkshire seat of Airdrie and Shotts, where the is standing down at the next election. His party chairman Brian Brady warned me today that the seat could become "Scotland's Blaenau Gwent" if the Labour high command in London insists the party should pick its next candidate from an all-women shortlist.
Blaenau Gwent, you may recall, was the rock-solid Labour seat in South Wales, where local Labour activists rebelled against the imposition of an all-women shortlist before the 2005 election. Many of them ended up leaving the party to support an independent Labour candidate Peter Law, who was duly elected to Parliament. He was succeeded after his death in 2006 by another independent MP - also ex-Labour - Dai Davies.
Airdrie and Shotts is a safe Labour seat. The majority last time as 14,084.
It's effectively the same constituency which was once represented by the former Labour John Smith. He was succeeded as MP by the former , and then by Reid, and it seems that local activists are a bit fed up having to accommodate top-level candidates who have been wished upon them by the party high command. And, Brian Brady says, there was an understanding that after John Reid the local party would be allowed a "free hand" to choose its own candidate.
And the seat has had a turbulent political history, and I first came across Brian Brady fifteen years ago when he was a local rebel Labour councillor arguing that the local council was run by a semi-corrupt Labour oligarchy which had a habit of fixing jobs for the friends and families of local Labour councillors.
What makes this story all the more juicy is that activists in Airdrie and Shotts fear they are being set up to accept a close associate from London of the Labour deputy leader, and possible leadership contender Harriet Harman.
"There's no doubt that this is a Harriet Harman thing to help strengthen her position," Brady has said. "She would like having acolytes in a safe seat."
Local branches in Airdrie and Shotts start the selection process next week. But Brian Brady warns that if the process ends up with a candidate who has been "parachuted" in, then Labour could lose the seat.
"On paper," he told me, "Airdie and Shotts looks very safe labour constituency. But at the last Scottish Parliament election we were run close by the SNP. We are aware that the wider electorate is not prepared to be taken for granted. This could turn out to be Scotland's Bleanau Gwent."
But would that mean Labour activists putting up an independent candidate as happened in the south Wales seat in 2005?
"Without doubt," says Brady, "there are a large number of local members who would go out and help in other constituencies. But at the present moment people are not thinking about running an independent local candidate."
"At the present moment?"
The threat is obvious.
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UPDATE - Thursday 19 March, 2009
A spokeswoman for Harriet Harman has told me today: "There is no substance in these allegations. The decision was taken about a year ago. Harriet supports all-women shortlists which have been long-standing party policy. The policy for an all-women shortlist in this constituency was approved by the full NEC [National Executive Committee], not by any one person or politician."
I'm Michael Crick, and I'm Newsnight's political editor. My guiding rule is that in any story there's usually something the politicians would prefer the world not to know. My job is to find that out. Follow me on
Comment number 1.
At 18th Mar 2009, StrongholdBarricades wrote:Storm in a teacup?
What if there weren't even MP's for Westminster from Scotland?
If there are still people who fail to see the mistakes being made everyday by Brown & Co then maybe the ballot box will shake them up
We'd like a choice
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Comment number 2.
At 18th Mar 2009, leftieoddbod wrote:there are no 'safe' Labour seats...not with this lot!
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Comment number 3.
At 18th Mar 2009, leftieoddbod wrote:there are no safe Labour seats...not with this lot...
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Comment number 4.
At 18th Mar 2009, sandPerran wrote:All women shortlists are sexist, chauvanistic and undemocratic.
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Comment number 5.
At 18th Mar 2009, Secret Love wrote:This blog assumes that the Labour Party are interested in what the public thinks ~ there has not yet been any evidence to support this.
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Comment number 6.
At 19th Mar 2009, galacticSensibleBoy wrote:As a resident in Blaenau Gwent i can tell you that Labour paid dearly for imposing undemocratic shortlists.
Not only did they lose the Westminster Seat but they lost the Welsh Assembly Seat and recently the local council. Labour need to wise up the last thing they want to be doing in annoying areas that have constantly returned Labour MP's when they are going to get the biggest kick in the marginals.
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Comment number 7.
At 19th Mar 2009, Steve wrote:This always baffled me - I can think of thousands of reasons to vote for anyone except Labour; but the make-up of the shortlist?
For...well, far more years than I've seen, there must have been literally hundreds of all-male shortlists, and this was never contested. All-female ones start occuring, and independent candidates are run, lifetime political affiliations are overturned. To my mind, this must be the clearest indication yet that sexual discrimination is still rife here.
A far more pertinent issue, perhaps - should national parties even have any say in candidate shortlists? Local MPs represent their constituents, not the 'constituency of one' that is the party leader.
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Comment number 8.
At 19th Mar 2009, SecretSkivver wrote:Rotten boroughs, rotten party ... perfect for brain-dead tribalist Labour voters.
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Comment number 9.
At 19th Mar 2009, barriesingleton wrote:WESTMINSTER CLUB (#5)
In my (often expressed) view, the parties of Westminster have more in common than to divide them. Westminster politics is a game; we are pawns. 'They' only care what we think in terms of winning the game and gaining power.
SPOIL PARTY GAMES
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Comment number 10.
At 19th Mar 2009, mekquarrie wrote:I fail to see why the good Doctor Reid has not already stood down as MP. Surely he is busy enough as Chair(man) of Celtic Football Club..?
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Comment number 11.
At 19th Mar 2009, barriesingleton wrote:PARACHUTES AND WARS
I have outlined before how 'unelected Blair' (parachuted into Sedgefield - a safe Labour seat) ended up taking us to war on his PERSONAL belief.
If parties were outlawed, 'safe seat' would be meaningless. If ALL MPs reached Parliament by virtue of voter-scrutiny of their character, there would be some chance of weeding out the nutters.
SPOIL PARTY GAMES
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Comment number 12.
At 19th Mar 2009, MorpethExile wrote:The next time NuLab respect the wishes of anyone other than single issue PC lobbyists, oh......and bankers will be the first.
Thankfully they won't be able to spin and manipulate their way out of the Electoral Drubbing they so deserve.
Good riddance to the worst government of the last 220 years.
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Comment number 13.
At 19th Mar 2009, redrobb wrote:From a very young age I learned the true meaning of a carve up, labour Old/New are past masters of such tactics. The candidate will be imposed via Westminster with a lot of arm twisting. The people of Shotts / Airdrie will not be given that choice, rest assured. I suggest they vote for some far out radicalinstaed of an independant version.
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Comment number 14.
At 20th Mar 2009, stooley wrote:Surely the story should be either:
"Does Brown face a "Scottish Blaenau Gwent"?"
Or
"Does Brown face another Blaenau Gwent?"
Otherwise the headline implies there has already been a Blaenau Gwent like event in Scotland, which there hasn't.
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Comment number 15.
At 20th Mar 2009, Steve wrote:I found this quote, below, from one of the Blaenau Gwent stories:
"Mr Hain said on Sunday: "I'm saying sorry to them (people in Blaenau Gwent). We got it wrong last time.
"We sought to present a choice of women only and we over-rode local party wishes and the wishes of the people of Blaenau Gwent.
"The first law of politics is you listen to the people."
So either:
1) It's wrong to impose an AWS on Blaenau Gwent, but not Airdrie & Shotts - in which case I'd be an angry person if I lived there, or;
2) Labour has decided that Mr Hain was wrong to apologise, and that it wasn't wrong last time.
I wonder which of those it is?
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