The executive director of the Labor Party in Wakefield left the last selection meeting for the party’s by-elections in protest of the election of a candidate whom members called a seamstress from the Labor headquarters.
In a riot of activists that could hurt the party’s chances of taking a decisive place in West Yorkshire, the local party’s executive director left en masse before the vote of the last two elected candidates, Kate Deardon and Simon Lightwood.
Labor is expected to take the place of by-elections sparked by the resignation of Imran Ahmad Khan, a former Conservative MP who was convicted of sexually assaulting a 15-year-old boy.
Returning to the seat would be of great symbolic value to Labor leader Keir Starmer to show that the party is making progress in the Red Wall seats won by the Conservatives in 2019.
The shortlist from the National Labor Executive Committee excluded several local candidates, including Wakefield Council Vice-President Jack Hemingway.
Neither of the two final candidates has Wakefield roots, although they both have close ties to the region. Deardon, who comes from Bingley, is the head of research, policy and foreign affairs at the Community Trade Union, while Lightwood previously worked for former Wakefield MP Mary Cree and former South Yorkshire mayor Dan Jarvis.
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Voting continued after leaving with about 120 local members – about a quarter of the total number of local members.
In a statement, the party’s executive director said: “Today’s meeting should have had a good set of candidates to choose from, including quality candidates based in Wakefield. Instead, there were only two, and all Wakefield options had already been removed.
“We had long-standing goals for early selection – not least to avoid all the problems of rushing at the last minute – and a local candidate from Wakefield to meet the well-known aspirations of our communities.
The executive accused the NEC of Labor of “dragging its heels until we stand up to the by-elections” and said the shortlist excluded all local candidates.
“As a result, the executive committee – including all employees, except for one external appointee – has resigned and the full constituency general management committee will receive our resignations and continue.
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