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Labour NEC member & fixer Luke Akehurst, at Labour Beyond Cities fringe meeting said there will be 10-12 last-minute selections next year - maybe 20 - where Lab MPs are expected to announce retirements, & so the NEC will impose shortlists on local parties, without usual processes
These last-minute seats, Akehurst said, will enable Labour's big unions to choose more working-class candidates; & also mean the NEC can redress any candidate diversity problems, such as the shortage of black men.
So have these retiring MPs been promised peerages in return for making their announcements so late, I asked, as happened under Blair? Blair has since privately confessed to feeling bad about promoting so many duff MPs to the Lords.
"They might THINK they're going to get peerages," Akehurst replied. "That doesn't mean they will." And will Starmer also install some of his aides & allies as last-minute candidates? I asked Akehurst. "Indeed, it's rumoured you might be a last-minute candidate yourself?"
Akehurst didn't scotch the idea, but said his past attempts to become an MP hadn't had much success.
Certainly, I've been struck how few Labour MPs have announced their retirements in the last year. Perhaps they've been encouraged to delay to give Starmer a large batch of last-minute seats where new candidates can effectively be imposed from on high.
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