Will the Members Decide?

We are hearing rumours that the NEC of the Labour Party has decided that Labour Party members in the constituency of West Ham and Beckton will have a role in deciding who the Westminster candidate will be. It is not at all clear at the moment whether this means that members participate in the one-member-one-vote system that is normal or whether there will be some hybrid consultation. What it does seem to suggest is that the NEC shoe-in that was anticipated will not occur.

Several members from Newham have already been canvassed by parliamentary hopefuls and we will cover the runners-and-riders shortly. It is clear that there are several prospective candidates from neighbouring Tower Hamlets. There are likely to be at least two candidates from Newham, though we suspect that there might be rather more than that in due course.

The early loser in this decision appears to be Cllr James Asser. Asser sits on Labour’s NEC and has made no secret of his parliamentary aspirations. He represents Beckton as a councillor. He may well have hoped for, or even assumed, that with the constituency parties suspended, the NEC would make the decision. As a member of the NEC he would have had a head start over any other aspirant.

The decision to go to the members means that he has to contact and convince several hundred local party members rather than a couple of dozen NEC members. Asser lost some 300 votes in the last council election; he is the focus of significant ire in respect of his role in the closure of the City Farm and in the collapsed prosecution of the staff; in his role heading up the Public Realm, he was the lead in a number of unpopular initiatives, parking charges and fines for instance. His record in office would suggest that he is somewhat less popular with the local members than he might once have been.