Labour elite join pre-election rush for safe seats

Patrick Wintour, The Guardian
Wednesday March 16, 2005

A last-minute rush of Labour MPs are standing down ahead of a likely May general election, prompting a scramble for seats by high-flying political operators close to No 10 and No 11.

The latest MP to stand aside is Iain Coleman, MP for Hammersmith and Fulham, who announced yesterday that he intended to leave parliament because of poor health.

Two Conservative candidates - both in Labour seats - also announced they were quitting yesterday. Danny Kruger, the man set to challenge Tony Blair in Sedgefield, was forced to resign by Michael Howard because of inappropriate remarks about the party's policy on the public sector.

Adrian Hilton, a 41-year-old local teacher, became the second Tory candidate to resign in the Labour marginal of Slough - the first quit after being photographed with his collection of guns. In a Spectator article Mr Hilton suggested that the European Union was a "Papist plot" and he was forced to stand down by the party last night, three weeks after his selection.

Among sitting Labour MPs there have been late resignations in 14 seats. Under Labour rules local parties are not entitled to draw up a shortlist in such cases - local parties have to select through a one member, one vote ballot from a shortlist drawn up by a national executive panel.

The late selection process, used in previous general elections, is often criticised as a device to promote the favourite sons and daughters of the party elite and to exclude run-of-the-mill local figures. The most glaring example so far has been Shaun Woodward, the defecting Tory MP, given the safe constituency of St Helens South.

The current spate of late resignations attracted publicity at the beginning of the week when the chief secretary to the Treasury, Paul Boateng, announced he was standing down from Brent South after being offered the post of high commissioner to South Africa if Labour is re-elected.

Three or four leading black figures are likely to go for Mr Boateng's seat, especially after the local party in Tony Banks's seat, West Ham, which has a large ethnic minority population, selected a white woman.

Two leading Brownites, Ian Austin and Ed Miliband, are seeking to join the chancellor's former chief economic adviser, Ed Balls, as Labour candidates.

Mr Austin is front-runner for the seat of Dudley North, vacated by the former law officer Ross Cranston. Mr Miliband, currently an adviser to the chancellor, is looking to run for Doncaster North, vacant since Kevin Hughes announced he was standing down after being diagnosed with motor neurone disease.

Mr Miliband is contesting the seat against Michael Dugher, special adviser to Geoff Hoon and a man with strong union and local links.

Labour has decreed that nine of the 14 late-selecting seats must select from all-women shortlists. In Bishop Auckland, Labour has selected the former treasury civil servant Helen Goodman, beating off a challenge from Mo O'Toole, a former MEP and the ex-wife of general election planner Alan Milburn.

A total of 41 sitting Labour MPs have said they are standing down at the election.