Labour MP Diana Johnson has vowed to challenge party rules that have led to her facing a reselection battle before the next general election.
At a meeting of the parliamentary Labour party in Westminster she told senior party figures she would fight the “trigger ballot” process after local activists voted to try to find a new candidate for the Hull North seat.
New party rules mean a selection contest can be triggered if a third of local Labour branches vote in favour.
She is understood to have said: “It’s a new procedure and I’m the first one that’s affected.”
She added that she was “absolutely clear” that she would challenge it by appealing to Labour’s national executive committee.
Johnson, who is not known as an outspoken critic of the party leader, Jeremy Corbyn, told the meeting it was unfair that separate branch votes were counted in the same way.
She claimed one branch that voted for her to face a challenge, had just two members present, while another in favour of her remaining as MP had 78 people there.
Rules were changed at last year’s party conference to make the threshold lower to trigger a selection process from 50% of local branches to a third.
Other female MPs told the meeting how they were deeply concerned the new process might affect women and ethnic minorities disproportionately.
Favoured “sons and daughters” of Corbyn’s leadership might find it easier to run in seats across the country even if they do not have a connection to the area, one MP complained.
“There’s a lot of suspicion up and down the country that candidates will be imposed and it will be favoured sons and favoured daughters and not people from a local area,” one MP said after the meeting.
“Also a general election could be imminent and we should be focused on that rather than colleagues having to face trigger ballots. Diana is a brilliant MP, one of the best.”
“All this plays into the opposition’s hands of us looking divided internally.”
Colleagues close to Corbyn allegedly told the meeting that the trigger ballot process was fair.
A Labour spokesperson said: “Under longstanding Labour party rules, reselection processes are held within every Labour-held constituency in between general elections. It is a core part of preparing for an election. The rules are set by party conference, not the NEC.”
