Field Grows For Labour Selection Battle

The number of people interested in becoming the new Labour candidate for Stalybridge and Hyde is growing. There’s a vacancy after the sitting MP and former cabinet minister, James Purnell, announced last month he wouldn’t be standing at the general election.

The party was expected to finish the process of compiling a shortlist today. One of the leading contenders remains Longdendale Councillor Jonny Reynolds, who spent four years working as an aide to Mr Purnell and is said by the left-wing magazine Tribune to be his “preferred successor.”

Peter Wheeler, a member of Labour’s ruling National Executive Committee and a Unite union official, is another strong contender. Two recent Labour selection battles, in both Leyton and Wanstead and Birmingham Erdington, both went the way of union veterans in John Cryer and Jack Dromey, so Mr Wheeler’s union background could prove crucial.

Local doctor Kailash Chand and Valerie Vaz, the sister of former minister Keith Vaz, have also put their names forward, along with ex-Euro MPs Glyn Ford and Neena Gill.

However, one person to have ruled himself out of contention is Whitehall special advisor Torsten Henricson-Bell. A friend of Schools Secretary Ed Balls, Mr Henricson-Bell had reportedly been considering having a crack at the seat, but decided this week not to enter the contest.

At the last election, Mr Purnell had a majority of 8,348 over the Conservatives.

You can read more at the Tribune website here, and from Newsnight’s Political Editor Michael Crick here.

Earlier Saddleworth News articles about James Purnell’s decision to stand down can be viewed here and here.

Author: Jude Gidney - Editor

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