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Evening Standard
Evening Standard
World
Robbie Griffiths

Ex-MP blocked from standing by Labour calls process ‘grossly unfair’

A ROW has erupted over Labour blocking Left-wing candidates from standing in the next general election. Former MP Emma Dent Coad was stopped yesterday from running as the candidate in Kensington. She won the seat from the Tories in 2017, but lost in 2019 by 150 votes.

Dent Coad told us today she “wasn’t really given a fair go” by Labour’s selection panel, and was read “a list of my sins” at a selection meeting last week. She said some of the allegations against her were inaccurate, and blamed “machinery around” leader Keir Starmer for the decision. Dent Coad claimed one of the panelists on the National Executive Committee who blocked her had liked a post by one of her opponents on Twitter, which she said was “grossly unfair”, “particularly given somebody had gone through everything I’ve said for the last 15 years”. Last year, she said Starmer’s Labour was “toxic” and didn’t know what it stands for now.

The former Kensington member of parliament said she was “gutted, but also a realist”. She said she always supported the Labour leadership over the years, despite often disagreeing with it, and added: “I was a very loyal member but I do speak out when I see fit and clearly I should keep my mouth shut some times.” Dent Coad said would get behind the Labour candiate who is “most likely to win”, arguing they should be from the area. “I don’t think they’re going to vote from people outside when they don’t know anything about them apart from their naked ambition” she said.

Those shortlisted include Mete Coban, a councillor in Hackney, and Joe Powell, who set up Kensington Against Dirty Money and works for the Open Government Partnership, an organisation founded by Barack Obama. Also running are Stephen Cowan, head of Hammersmith and Fulham Council, former bus driver and now local Labour deputy leader Kasim Ali, and Salman Shaikh, founder of The Shaikh Group, which aims for better dialogue in the Middle East and North Africa.

Dent Coad is respected in the Kensington area for her support for the victims of the Grenfell tower fire. She believes the unequal constituency is a “microcosm of everything that’s wrong with the Tory party and in the country”, which she argues in her book One Kensington. Another Left-wing candidate, Maurice Mcleod, was blocked from standing in Camberwell and Peckham at the weekend.

Five weeks: blink and you miss it

Kwasi Kwarteng (Victoria Jones/ PA) (PA Wire)

Politics comes at you fast these days. Late last week a piece by Kwasi Kwarteng with the title “My first five weeks as Chancellor: A thank you to staff” was printed on the internal Treasury intranet, in a bid to win over civil servants. But Kwarteng was sacked on Friday morning, and the text was removed, replaced by advice on how to avoid illness. Kwasi’s first five weeks were his last.

Dom driving Cleo to her book launch

(Getty Images)

We met ex-Downing Street aide Cleo Watson, right, at a bash for Harry Mount’s collection of latin quotations Et Tu, Brute? last week. Watson is now writing political novels, with the first out in May. Will Dominic Cummings, famous for his eye-testing trip to Barnard Castle, come to the launch? “He won’t come to the party but he might drive me there,” Cleo joked. Make sure he wears his glasses ...

Frog turns to Toad

(Matt Writtle)

A LOCAL bakery forced to change its name by Michelin-starred chef Adam Handling has found a new, amphibious moniker. FROG Bakery in Camberwell was told to change its branding because it infringed on Handling’s Frog restaurant in Covent Garden. Now it is called TOAD. “We’ve evolved,” the bakery wrote on Instagram. “Same s**t, brand-new name”. You have to kiss a lot of frogs before you meet your... toad?

Pink power wins the day

LEADING men Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson and Pierce Brosnan were pretty in pink at the Corinthia Hotel at a press call for their film Black Adam yesterday. We don’t fancy Pierce’s chances in an arm wrestle. In Leicester Square, Charlotte Riley and Chloë Grace Moretz came out for their new show The Peripheral while at Mayfair members club 5 Hertford Street, Kate Hudson and Janelle Monae caroused at a reception for their whodunnit sequel Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery.

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