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.

🔴 BOLTON NORTH EAST: entire local selection committee has resigned. They say in a statement that they "lack confidence in the integrity of the Labour Party's selection process... it appears that the Labour Party is seeking to promote the views and attitudes of a clique in London, rather than local members in the North."

Should Pearleen Sangha, Labour's London regional director, really have tweeted this yesterday, only 29 minutes before selection in Camberwell & Peckham was due to start? She called one of the contenders, Miatta Fahnbulleh, "A class act!" for praising behaviour of her 3 rivals. Some may think I'm being trivial, and say that Sangha was only acknowledging courtesy & decency by Fahnbulleh after a fraught contest. But it will inevitably add to the suspicion that senior Labour staff are fixing selections for those "anointed" sons and daughters.

It's increasingly clear that Labour's selection processes are unfair, and verge on corrupt. Some contenders get access to local membership lists long before others do, & so can start canvassing much sooner. Sometimes they have lists through being a councillor or party official But in other cases candidates seem to have been given lists by people within the Labour machine. This is not always a Left-Right thing. And those who get the lists early are often those who seem to be “anointed” from on high.

SUTTON & CHEAM. Lib Dem candidate David Campanale could be axed. I'm told that following a meeting last night, the party in S&C has now started polling members electronically over whether to ditch Campanale, a former BBC journalist, as their candidate. Campanale's friends say he's being persecuted for being a committed Christian. Another version is that some local members feel he's a poor campaigner who fails to motivate people, & hasn't met the party's stringent campaign targets. Please DM me if you know more.

For Labour in COLNE VALLEY, Con maj 5103 (8.38%), I have:
ALISON HUME, disability campaigner; screenwriter; stood for North Yorkshire Police Commissioner and Yorks & Humber EU parliament seat; UCU and Unison member. ANTONIO WEISS, consultant at the PSC; researcher at Cambridge Public Policy institute; Harrow cllr since 2014; stood for Tunbridge Wells in 2019.

For BASINGSTOKE, Con maj 14198, (25.95%).
ALEX LEE, cllr since 2022, scrum master at Dunelm; member of Community and GMB. MICHAEL HOWARD-SORRELL, cllr since 2021; network engineer for Visa; justice of the peace.

For Labour selection in UXBRIDGE & SOUTH RUISLIP, Con maj. 7,210 (15%), I know of two contenders.
DANNY BEALES; charity worker; Camden councillor; & council cabinet member who "led the largest council-house building programme in a generation". PANNY ANTONIOU, social media manager; stood for Highgate council; officer for Young Fabians.

LABOUR in BURNLEY meet at Turf Moor on Saturday afternoon to pick from a shortlist of four: Ashley Dalton, Sobia Malik, Oliver Ryan and Mark Townsend. The two front-runners seem to be Oliver Ryan & Sobia Malik.

FAIZA SHAHEEN picked again for LABOUR in Chingford & Woodford Green. She won on first ballot, but "very close" I'm told. Faiza Shaheen, an economist, is the first big victory for the Left after 23 contests in this round of Labour selections. Bilal Mahmood, lawyer with City banks who stood in 2015 & 2017, & was backed by nearby Stella Creasy, came 2nd; Beatrice Stern, fmr Hilary Benn adviser, 3rd.

HEIDI ALEXANDER selected by LABOUR to fight SOUTH SWINDON at next election. Self-styled "Swindon girl", Alexander was MP for Lewisham East from 2010 to 2018, when she left Parliament to become deputy mayor to Sadiq Khan with responsibility for London transport.

LABOUR selection in PLYMOUTH MOOR VIEW tomorrow afternoon is interesting, partly as it involves 2 candidates with Royal Navy records. Moor View was a Labour seat from 2010-15, but now Conservative maverick former army officer Johnny Mercer has a formidable 12,897 majority. Favourite probably GARETH DERRICK, 64, fmr RN commander; submariner; served Falklands & twice Iraq; inspecting officer at P Mordaunt Dartmouth passing out parade; fmr UK defence attache, Tokyo; Plymouth cllr, 2018-22; cand Cornwall SE 2017 & 19; Devon & C'wall PCC cand 2016 & 21

ANDREW PAKES is hoping to become the 8th former NUS president to become a Labour MP - after Straw, Clarke, Woolas, Twigg, Fitzsimons, Murphy & Streeting. ANDREW PAKES was NUS president 1998-2000; now deputy general secretary of independent trade union Prospect; Southwark cllr, 2006-10; fought Milton Keynes North, 2010; MK South, 2015; former adviser to Nicky Gavron & Mary Creagh.

LABOUR members in CITIES of LONDON & WESTMINSTER meet 1pm Sat to pick candidate in seat where Chuka Umunna, defector to Liberal Democrats, pushed Labour into 3rd in 2019. But party has high hopes after famously taking Westminster Council for first time ever in May. LIZA BEGUM, Westminster cllr since 2021, trains women for work; backed by John McDonnell;
RACHEL BLAKE, Tower Hamlets cllr since 2014; former Treasury policy adviser;
DEEBA SYED, lawyer who left large City bank to work for Rights of Women charity.

LABOUR in SOUTH SWINDON meet 10am on Sat to decide whether to pick fmr shadow heath sec HEIDI ALEXANDER @Heidi_Labour as candidate, or two others on shortlist - CHRIS LLOYD @Chris_C_Lloyd & ALEXANDER MACDONALD. Cons MP Robert Buckland has maj of 6,625, but seat was Lab 1997-2010 Bold move by Alexander to go for marginal Cons seat, having been MP for safe Lewisham East, 2010-18. She quit as MP barely 4 yrs ago, causing by-election, to become deputy London mayor for transport to Sadiq Khan, but left post at end of 2021. Now styles herself 'Swindon girl’