Labour selections: more ethnic minority parliamentary candidates?
24 05 2007Labour parliamentary selections are well under way and Black, Asian and minority ethnic (BME) activists are waiting to see whether the contests produce any more BME parliamentary candidates, following Rushanara Ali’s (pictured) successful selection in Bethnal Green & Bow.
Hornsey & Wood Green Labour Party shortlisted Catherine West, Jan Etienne, Karen Jennings, Nilgun Canver, Claudia Webb and Jayne Buckland from a field of 12 candidates last night. West, the Leader of Islington Labour Group, and Etienne, a university lecturer and former Southend West PPC, appear to be the clear front runners having picked up 8 and 6 nominations respectively. Etienne is the leading BME candidate in a constituency where 23.6% of the population is BME. The hustings is due to take place on Sunday 17 June. The seat is held by the Liberal Democrats with a 2,395 majority.
Meanwhile, the timetable for the parliamentary selection in Croydon Central, where 23% of the population is BME, is under way. BME contenders in a field of 27 candidates include Patrick Vernon, a Hackney councillor, Dora Dixon- Fyle, a Southwark councillor, and Afsana Shukur, former head of the DWP’s ethnic minority employment division, and at least ten local members. The shortlisting is due to take place on Sunday 17 June with the hustings due on Saturday 7 July. The seat is held by the Conservatives with a slim majority of 75.
A selection timetable to pick a candidate to succeed Piara Khabra MP in safe seat Ealing Southall, following the Labour Party NEC’s decision to impose an all women shortlist there, is still to be announced.
This posting is so inaccurate the outcome of the shortlisting meeting held on the 23rd May for Hornsey and Wood Green in terms of votes cast was as follows: -
Catherine West - Automatically shortlisted
Karen Jennings - 23
Claudia Webbe - 19
Jan Etienne - 18
Nilgun Canver - 17
Jayne Buckland 10
Tricia Clarke - 5 (Removed from the final shortlist)
Hornsey and Wood Green Watch - please explain how our posting is inaccurate? Do you just refer to the information given in relation to H&WG or do you refer to the entire post? Is our analysis of the number of nominations received by candidates in H&WG incorrect? Please let us know - we are keen to ensure the information we have been provided with is correct. Many thanks. TMP.
At the time of TMP posting, the selection outcome was known, thus for the purpose of shortlisting the number of initial nominations, whether accurate or not becomes meaningless.
For example had the CLP decided to shortlist only 3 candidates as in the case of many other CLPs then clearly Etienne, Canver, Buckland and Clarke would not have been shortlisted. This would therefore make a total nonsense of TMP’s assertion that “..Etienne is the leading BME candidate..”
Obviously TMP’s assertion may well enable the proposition to come true. However these speculations and assertions are less than helpful as the only only outcome that matters is the candidate that wins the CLP selection. Then the real detailed analysis can begin.
After all from an overall total of thirteen candidates only three BME candidates remain out of an initial total of eight BME candidates, thus already a disproportionate number of BME candidates have already been knocked off the list.