Labour’s longstanding mayor of Liverpool complained that the party is “not always a meritocracy” after he was defeated in the race to be selected as the candidate for a safe seat in the city.
Joe Anderson spoke out after he lost out to Dan Carden, a relatively unknown adviser to Len McCluskey, the general secretary of Unite, for the party’s nomination in the seat of Liverpool Walton.
He said the decision, made by a panel of the party’s ruling national executive committee (NEC), was a reminder that “the Labour party is not always a meritocracy”, and complained that his track record of running the city council, two re-elections as mayor and increasing the party’s representation in the city from 19 to 80 councillors had been ignored.
The Walton seat had been vacated by Steve Rotheram who was elected last week as the metro mayor of Liverpool, covering the wider Merseyside area.
Several local councillors and members in Liverpool had argued that the chosen candidate should have a track record of representing people in the constituency.
Carden grew up in Liverpool, but senior figures in Liverpool Labour politics mounted an ultimately unsuccessful attempt to stop him winning the nomination for the seat, writing a letter to the NEC ahead of the selection meeting.
“Liverpool Walton is one of the safest Labour seats in the country, but
we must never take a single vote for granted,” wrote the party members, who include Ben Williams, secretary of Liverpool Walton’s constituency Labour party.
“Local residents deserve to be represented by a member of our community rather than by someone imposed ... The extraordinary situation of the snap general election means that the NEC has been forced to move quickly to select Labour candidates. However, this doesn’t mean local concerns should be sidelined.”
The letter also hints at unhappiness with the involvement of Unite in the selection process, as it calls for the party to avoid “another Falkirk” in relation to the scandal during Ed Miliband’s leadership over alleged trade union interference in the selection of a candidate for the Scottish constituency.
Rotheram, a close ally of Jeremy Corbyn, also made it clear he wanted a local candidate to succeed him.
Speaking after he was elected as the metro mayor, Rotheram said: “Over the last few weeks, since the announcement of the snap general election, I have spoken with numerous people to try to ensure that they understand the depth of feeling that a local candidate should be chosen to succeed me – just as my predecessor did when I was selected in 2010.
“I believe that the failure of the Labour party to allow local representation on the panels to select candidates is a significant misjudgment.
“I have tried my utmost to convince the powers that be that the most acceptable solution would be a local representative on the ballot paper to succeed me as the next MP for Liverpool Walton, given that there are potentially some high-calibre candidates from which to select.”
Carden, whose father, a trade unionist, lost his job in the 1995 Liverpool dockers’ strike, said being selected for Liverpool Walton was “the proudest moment of my life”.
“It’s the pinnacle of a journey I could not have dreamed of,” he said. “When my dad first explained to me, when I was just eight years old, that he had been sacked for refusing to cross a picket line, this lit the flame in me that has fired my dedication to the service of working people.
“I am 30 years old, from a different generation with different experiences, but I know that only Labour is on our side. I’m ambitious for what the Labour party can do for our people, for this country as a whole. Only a Labour government will transform our economy, redistribute wealth fairly from the few to the many and give hope to communities like ours.”
Carden joined the Labour party when still at school and then went to work for Knowsley MP George Howarth after university, before working for the Unite leadership over the last five years.
Unite said it would not comment, as Carden’s selection was a matter for the Labour party.
