Of the 100 candidates now picked by Labour for winnable seats: 57 are men; 43 women; 13 ethnic minorities; 59 are former councillors or fmr cllrs; 18 council leaders or deputies, or former; 1 working-class 9 retreads (3 in new seats) only about 9-10 aren't local
@tomorrowsmps When you say 'arent local' Michael are you including the people whose pitch is 'i lived here for some years as a child, left for my career and now 30 years later plan to come back if I'm made an MP'. As thats local in a remote sense of the word.
@LabBeyondCities Yes I am, definitely. Anything else is the road to mediocrity.
@tomorrowsmps Fair enough if that's your opinion (NATO was essentially set up by someone who's career would have been in 18 wheeler logistics nowadays) but it's probably not what most would see as 'local' is all. I'd argue it's more a symbolic link rather than anything meaningful
@LabBeyondCities Who are referring to re Nato? Bevin?
@tomorrowsmps Well Bevin wasn't local to his seat but perhaps I've misunderstood your point by implication and by mixing two points together. I suppose the main thing is that 'i grew up here but I left three decades ago but I come back once a year ' is a local only by stretch definition
@LabBeyondCities Bevin makes my point brilliantly. His career took him to lots of places & he represented 2 London seats. I don't think Winsford in Somerset, where he was born, has ever had a Lab MP, so if he'd been confined to standing there, his political career wouldn't have got very far.
@LabBeyondCities And what about people born in India, or Africa, or the Caribbean, would they get exemption under your stand where you were born & brought up rule?
@tomorrowsmps @LabBeyondCities It's not only potentially discriminatory for that reason, but also disadvantages younger candidates who are more likely to have had to move away from their home towns for career prospects or University, and those from (eg) military families who tend to have moved around a lot.
@charlotte2153 @tomorrowsmps @LabBeyondCities Members are picking mostly people who live locally ( not necessarily born locally). People they know and have campaigned with. I'm not sure how you change that except by banning locals from applying for certain seats. And I don't see that idea being accepted by members
@charlotte2153 @tomorrowsmps The only obvious discrimination in Labour that can be evidenced is against working class candidates