Labour Left accuses party of mayoral ‘stitch-up’
Corbynite candidate excluded from newly relaunched selection race in Liverpool

The Labour leadership has been accused of a “stitch-up” after ditching a Jeremy Corbyn-endorsed candidate from the ballot to choose who will run to become the next mayor of Liverpool.
The Liverpool Echo says the search for Labour’s mayoral candidate “was supposed to present a fresh start” for the city’s party, which is “still reeling from the arrest of Mayor Joe Anderson and a subsequent government investigation into the council's dealings”.
Yet “it has been anything but”, the paper reports, amid a growing row following a brief suspension last week of the selection process. After interviewing the three previously shortlisted candidates last Friday, the party has now reopened the application process just days before ballots were due to go to party members.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
And in a footnote of the statement announcing the decision, the party says that “no previous candidate will be invited to reapply”.
The all-female shortlist included local councillor Anna Rothery, who has been endorsed by former Labour leader Corbyn. After being booted out of the contest, Rothery told LabourList that she welcomed the decision “to include more scrutiny of candidates” but “not to remove transparency and accountability from the process”.
“I hope party HQ sees the outrage its decision has caused across our city and the harm it is doing to our party’s reputation and changes course,” she added. “If the decision stands then I will be left with no choice but to challenge it legally.”
Meanwhile, a Labour source told the Liverpool Echo that the mayoral campaign was in “complete chaos”, while another said the party would be be “rudderless” heading into the election in May.
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Meanwhile, a spokesperson for pro-Corbyn campaign group Momentum said that “removing candidates with no explanation smells like a stitch-up to keep left candidates off the ballot”. The row marks “another bad day for democracy within the Labour Party”, the spokesperson added.
Close Corbyn ally and former shadow chancellor John McDonnell tweeted that the “fiasco leaves the Labour bureaucracy wide open to charges of sheer incompetence or a political stitch-up or both. If there was a problem with any candidate it should have been dealt with earlier or is the problem the socialism of a possible winner?”
The Liverpool Echo points out that “all three shortlisted candidates are and have been city councillors for some time and this is a city council in turmoil - so it may well be that the party wants to find someone without links to the authority”.
But on the other hand, the paper adds, “why approve the shortlist in the first place?”
According to LabourList, “party sources have suggested that the reasons for restarting the selection in this way are linked to serious issues around Liverpool corruption investigations”.
Chas Newkey-Burden has been part of The Week Digital team for more than a decade and a journalist for 25 years, starting out on the irreverent football weekly 90 Minutes, before moving to lifestyle magazines Loaded and Attitude. He was a columnist for The Big Issue and landed a world exclusive with David Beckham that became the weekly magazine’s bestselling issue. He now writes regularly for The Guardian, The Telegraph, The Independent, Metro, FourFourTwo and the i new site. He is also the author of a number of non-fiction books.
-
Does Reform have a Russia problem?
Talking Point Nigel Farage is ‘in bed with Putin’, claims Rachel Reeves, after party’s former leader in Wales pleaded guilty to taking bribes from the Kremlin
-
Five key questions about the Gaza peace deal
The Explainer Many ‘unresolved hurdles’ remain before Donald Trump’s 20-point plan can get the go-ahead
-
See the Northern Lights from these bucket list destinations
The Week Recommends The dazzling displays can be spotted across Iceland, Sweden and parts of Canada
-
Your Party: a Pythonesque shambles
Talking Point Comical disagreements within Jeremy Corbyn and Zarah Sultana's group highlight their precarious position
-
Behind the ‘Boriswave’: Farage plans to scrap indefinite leave to remain
The Explainer The problem of the post-Brexit immigration surge – and Reform’s radical solution
-
Can the Lib Dems be a party of government again?
Today's Big Question Leader Ed Davey is urged to drop the stunts and present a serious plan for the country
-
What is Donald Trump’s visit worth to the UK economy?
In the Spotlight Centrepiece of the president’s trip, business-wise, is a ‘technology partnership’
-
Is Andy Burnham making a bid to replace Keir Starmer?
Today's Big Question Mayor of Manchester on manoeuvres but faces a number of obstacles before he can even run
-
Angela Rayner: the rise and fall of a Labour stalwart
In the Spotlight Deputy prime minister resigned after she underpaid £40,000 in stamp duty
-
Will Donald Trump’s second state visit be a diplomatic disaster?
Today's Big Question Charlie Kirk shooting, Saturday’s far-right rally and continued Jeffrey Epstein fallout ramps-up risks of already fraught trip
-
The runners and riders for the Labour deputy leadership
The Explainer Race to replace Angela Rayner likely to come down to Starmer loyalist vs. soft-left MP supported by backbenchers and unions