Claims 'London clique' selecting Labour general election candidates

The leaders of a local Labour Party have walked out over a "a clique in London" they claim is dictating who is selected to stand as an MP.

Nine members of Labour's 13 strong Bolton North East executive say they "lack confidence in the integrity" of the party's selection process.

It comes after a local party figure, Leigh Drennan, was prevented from standing in the seat.

Labour Party HQ in London has been contacted for comment.

Party bosses have previously said they are ensuring that every candidate they put forward is of a high standard.

With a general election expected next year, Labour activists are eager to be selected as candidates in winnable seats. Victory could put them into the House of Commons, and could get the Labour Party into government.

Mr Drennan - the chair of the party's regional body Labour North West - had been endorsed by Labour's deputy leader Angela Rayner and a number of trade unions affiliated to the party.

Despite this, Labour's governing body prevented him running as a candidate in Bolton North East.

Conservative Mark Logan won the seat at the 2019 general election by just 378 votes, making it a top Labour target, as the party seeks to rebuild the "Red Wall" of traditional strongholds.

Bernadette Gallagher, who quit the Bolton North East executive on Friday morning, accused Labour HQ of playing "a very dirty game", arguing that three other potential candidates were imposed on the constituency without local input.

She added that the selection process had been "manipulated" to keep Mr Drennan out and told the BBC she felt that Sir Keir Starmer was trying to restrict his overall pool of candidates to "moderates".

She claimed the three-person shortlist was decided by a panel from London who "don't understand the Red Wall seats".

Another executive member who resigned, Francesca Platt, labelled the selection process "absolute chaos". She said local officials were not given a say in their candidates and were then expected to be "fodder" for delivering leaflets.

Charlotte Nichols, Labour MP for nearby Warrington North, tweeted that Mr Drennan's exclusion was "one of the most blatantly factional examples of abuse of the process I've seen in the 15 years or so I've been a party member".

It is understood Leigh Drennan was blocked due to a "due diligence" issue, meaning the party had concerns about letting him proceed as a candidate. But a number of local activists have disputed this.

Some close to the selection have suggested that the Labour leadership considered Mr Drennan too left-wing to stand for the party. He had been backed in previous internal elections by Momentum, the campaign group which supported Jeremy Corbyn.

In an endorsement on his campaign website, Ms Rayner said Mr Drennan had "cut his teeth in the trade union movement and this is reflected in his socialist policies".

The first stage in the path to becoming a Labour MP is to get on the longlist of candidates for a seat.

This stage of the process is controlled by Labour's National Executive Committee (NEC), the party's ruling body.

The longlist is whittled down to a shortlist by local officials before constituency members pick their candidate.

Various left-wing candidates have previously claimed they were unfairly blocked from making the longlist.

Last month, the president of the National Education Union Louise Atkinson, who is a serving Labour councillor, was not allowed to run in Carlisle. She told the BBC she was given "no clear reason" for being excluded.

Last year, the entire leadership of the Labour Party in Wakefield resigned over disagreements with party HQ about how the candidate for a by-election was chosen.

Labour insist they are simply ensuring their candidates are of the "highest calibre".

But some in the party feel there is a policy of blocking those who could potentially rebel in the future against Sir Keir more moderate leadership.