ILFORD SOUTH MP Sam Tarry may challenge his deselection by his constituency party last night.
The 499-361 vote saw Redbridge Council leader Jas Athwal, seen as an ally of Labour rightwinger Wes Streeting, selected to run for Labour in the seat at the next election.
Mr Athwal said: “It is the only place I would ever want to represent. The opportunity to be the Labour candidate at the next election and be part of Keir Starmer’s winning team is a real honour.”
Mr Tarry, who won the seat in 2019 with a 24,000 majority, said he was “utterly crestfallen by the result in the Ilford South selection last night. Not for myself, but for the good people of Ilford who deserve better than to have been at the centre of a manufactured political circus.
“I am extremely concerned about the result, which does not reflect the feeling my campaigners met on the ground talking day in, day out to members, or the extensive meticulous data we gathered on the campaign.
“I am taking some time to consider what’s next, but in order to be assured of the integrity of the result I am asking the party to share with me the full information of who cast electronic votes, by what method, and when they were cast, which I understand is available on the ‘anonyvoter’ system.
“In the meantime, I will continue to represebt the people of Ilford South.”
In August after the constituency’s branches voted to trigger a full reselection process, Mr Tarry said he had submitted evidence to the party of “rule-breaking, concrete evidence of voter fraud, voter impersonation, widespread voting by party members not on the electoral register, and the dangerous whipping up of communal tensions to undermine the democratic reselection process in an attempt to unseat me”.
Party leftwingers have regarded Mr Tarry, who previously worked for transport union TSSA, as a target for removal by Labour leader Sir Keir since he was sacked as a frontbencher in July for standing on an RMT picket line and giving comments to the media in support of striking workers.
Sir Keir banned frontbenchers from attending picket lines, though others have ignored the decree and escaped reproach. He has sought to distance Labour from the biggest wave of strike action to sweep Britain in decades and pointedly ignored striking Liverpool dockers rallying outside Labour conference as he delivered his keynote speech last month.
Labour conference passed a number of rule changes increasing the party leadership’s control over candidates selected to run for Parliament, including by affirming that “ that no selection arrangements, shortlisting of candidates or selection of candidates may be undertaken unless the NEC has reviewed the composition of the shortlisting panel and ‘expressly certified that, in the NEC’s opinion, the shortlisting panel members’ appointment to the shortlisting panel conforms to the party’s obligations under the Equality Act 2010’.”
One MP told the Morning Star the leadership was set on removing sitting socialist MPs before any general election, to ensure the purge of the party’s left following the defeat of Corbynism was complete.
Labour has already intervened to prevent local party members from choosing their own candidates in a number of selection contests, including for the 2021 Hartlepool by-election and that year’s Liverpool mayoral race.
This article has been updated.
