Labour denies ‘old guard’ cull
The Labour party has denied suggestions that its planned shakeup of local party organisation is designed to remove older MPs to make way for new, younger candidates.
The 21st Century Party review, proposals from which will be put to conference next month, is looking at ways to allow activists more flexibility in how they work.
The restructuring proposals, which could for example see local parties scrap monthly meetings if they did not find them useful, are aimed at revitalising local parties in an era where individual candidates are seen to be increasingly important in elections.
Labour is keen to make room for new talent, and last week the National Executive Committee (NEC) agreed to speed up the process of selecting new candidates to replace sitting MPs.
The list of approved candidates could be opened as early as the party conference in Brighton, to give them as much time as possible to campaign locally.
The party has set the target of increasing the number of female MPs from its current level of 28 per cent to 40 per cent by the next election. Party chairman Ian McCartney is also keen on having more MPs from ethnic minorities.
But there are suggests from some quarters that these changes are in part aimed at allowing local parties to deselect sitting MPs who refuse to adopt new campaigning techniques or lead their activists in this new approach.
However, a spokesman for the party told politics.co.uk that while it was encouraging new candidates, deselection “is nothing to do with what we are trying to do”.
He said the review was entirely about creating a “positive agenda” to make the party fit for a new millennium, allowing local parties to innovate and to work better. Deselection was “just not where we’re coming from”.
