When Labour under Jeremy Corbyn won a swathe of new seats in 2017, a senior member of the party’s national executive committee (NEC) confided shortly after the election that there were at least three new MPs that they had not expected to win their seats – and about whom they had some concerns.
The first was Jared O’Mara, who stood down in 2019 after a string of scandals. The second was Fiona Onasanya, who lost her seat after a criminal conviction. The third, whom it would be unfair to name, turned out to be scandal-free.
When Labour’s NEC shortlists candidates, there is always some quality control. But under Keir Starmer the degree to which the committee’s selections panel has exerted tight control over the final shortlisting has been extraordinary.
His allies say there is a strong argument that in the past few years there has been an exceptional number of MPs suspended, arrested or even just embarrassed for ill-advised tweets – and that the bar for entering parliament should be much higher.
Conservative researchers and the Guido Fawkes website have had rich pickings when trawling through social media posts from Labour candidates to embarrass the party. Now senior figures in Labour HQ are going through them with a fine-tooth comb to try to spot the potential problems first.
It is not an exact science and has many downsides. Often concerns that officials have are valid – as with O’Mara and Onasanya. But sometimes candidates who seem like wildcards turn out to make good MPs, as the case of the third MP shows.
And decisions often end up being factional. Scandal has not been confined to candidates on the left of the Labour party – Chris Matheson and Mike Hill both triggered byelections because of complaints of sexual harassment.
Starmer’s critics say the new process is creating identikit candidates, very few from working-class jobs and all loyal to Starmer’s wing of the party – as well as disempowering local activists.
Much of what Starmer is trying to do is not new. Every leader of the party tries to shape the party in their own image. But Corbyn had limited successes because he was in constant battle with senior Labour officials for control of decision-making bodies.
Corbyn and his allies had relatively few allies selected to be parliamentary candidates, partly because he fought two snap elections requiring fast-tracked decisions by NEC panels, which were at the time finely balanced between left and centrists. Starmer has much more control of his NEC.
New faces of the left came through in 2019 including Nadia Whittome and Zarah Sultana, but some are facing potential deselection like Apsana Begum and Sam Tarry.
Several favoured Corbyn candidates never made it to parliament, such as Faiza Shaheen and Ali Milani, who tried to unseat Iain Duncan Smith and Boris Johnson respectively, and other allies including Laura Pidcock and Laura Smith lost their seats in 2019.
The approach under Corbyn had nothing like the ruthless effectiveness of the selections under his successor, despite Starmer having promised during the leadership campaign to give local members greater control. Close to him are a trusted group of top aides who have made it their life’s mission to remove any trace of Corbynism.
Any candidate who looks like even a potential loose cannon – especially previous supporters of Corbyn – is likely to have something on their social media that can be used to justify keeping them off the long list of candidates, which means party members never get a chance to vote for them.
According to some of the candidates that have been excluded, some of those reasons have stretched credulity, including liking tweets from the Green MP Caroline Lucas or from the Scottish first minister, Nicola Sturgeon, when she said she had recovered from Covid.
The tight control over selections has meant other conventions are also being bulldozed. At the most recent meeting of trade union affiliates to Labour, multiple unions said they were alarmed about the way selections were being conducted.
Candidates backed by prominent trade unions have been disallowed by the NEC, including at least six backed by Unite, including the anti-racism campaigner Maurice Mcleod and Emma Dent Coad, the former MP for Kensington. Unison-backed Lauren Townsend was blocked in Milton Keynes North.
Momentum and even some MPs on the soft left have been vocally angry and have highlighted instances of what they deem to be hypocrisy when controversial candidates from Starmer’s wing of the party are selected.
The most obvious is the leader of Barking and Dagenham council, Darren Rodwell, who won selection in Barking despite having joked about having the “worst tan possible for a black man” – Rodwell is white. Despite an NEC investigation, Rodwell was cleared after an apology.
Internally, Labour sources are unrepentant about their strategy. “Just look at the rogues’ gallery of clowns who have been selected in recent years on both sides,” one senior aide said. “The public think parliament is a joke. Keir wants serious people, proper ministers, coming through this intake.”
There is also another part of the puzzle – though the polls look good for Labour, there is a significant chance Starmer will have a small majority or even a minority government. If he does, the calculation is that he cannot afford to be held to ransom by his own MPs, in the same way the Conservatives have collapsed four recent prime ministers.
