Labour NEC members caught out by by-election timetable
Members of Labour’s wider National Executive Committee (NEC) were not informed of the timetable for applications to become the party’s candidate in the Gorton and Denton by-election set by the committee’s officers group. Instead, some had to find out about the timetable via news reports, the New Statesman understands.
Several members of the wider NEC – who are not part of the officers group – have told the New Statesman that they were not made aware of the timetable before it was made public. An NEC source told the New Statesman that if the NEC officers group uses delegated powers to make a decision, they must communicate this decision to the wider NEC before going public. Another anonymous member said that since the announcement of the by-election, wider members have not received anything informing them of any decisions being taken by the officers group.
On Friday 23 January, details of the timetable for applications for selection as the Labour candidate in Gorton and Denton emerged on X. The timetable stated that applications from Labour Mayors would close at 5pm on Saturday 24 January, with general applications closing at 23.59pm on Sunday 25 January. This schedule was decided by the NEC’s officers group, a smaller group of 10 committee members which includes Keir Starmer and the NEC chair, Shabana Mahmood. It is standard procedure for the timetable for the selection of a candidate for a Parliamentary by-election to be determined by NEC officers.
However, one anonymous member told the New Statesman that after the timetable had been released, wider NEC members who were asked to respond to press and public inquiries “didn’t know how to respond because they hadn’t seen the timetable”. Another said they had been relying on journalists and social media posts for updates.
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Shortly after the 5pm deadline on 24 January – the Mayor of Greater Manchester, Andy Burnham – announced his decision to seek permission from the NEC to run for selection as the Labour candidate in the upcoming by-election. The officers’ group will meet this morning to decide whether to give Burnham permission to run for selection.
Shabana Mahmood, the Home Secretary and Chair of the NEC appeared on the morning broadcast round and took questions on this issue. Speaking to Laura Kuenssberg this morning, said “on lots of these decisions which are usually made by NEC officers not always the full national executive committee, it is not unusual for some members of the full national executive to say we think this decision should be made here, rather than by officers. For selections it is very normal practice…for selections to be done by NEC officers”.
When asked for about critics seeing this as a stitch-up, Mahmood said: “It’s not unusual in internal Labour party politics for there to be big rows over selections…people will have their views.” She added: “It’s for the NEC officers to consider the issues in the round. There will be strong views in the room later today. My job is to make sure they’re heard.”
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