{"id":63837,"date":"2024-06-01T15:41:11","date_gmt":"2024-06-01T15:41:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/06\/01\/general-election-labour-faces-questions-over-candidate-selection\/"},"modified":"2024-06-01T15:41:11","modified_gmt":"2024-06-01T15:41:11","slug":"general-election-labour-faces-questions-over-candidate-selection","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/06\/01\/general-election-labour-faces-questions-over-candidate-selection\/","title":{"rendered":"General election: Labour faces questions over candidate selection"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"General<\/div>


\n<\/p>\n

\n
\n
\n
\n

\n

Catrin Haf Jones,<\/span>BBC News<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\n
\"GettyGetty Images<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Torsten Bell, chief executive of the Resolution Foundation think tank, has been announced as Labour’s candidate for Swansea West<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n
\n

Welsh Labour is facing questions from local members about general election candidates being \u201cparachuted\u201d into \u201csafe seats\u201d.<\/p>\n

Some local party members have raised concerns about being kept in the dark during the selection process.<\/p>\n

Ceri Evans, a Labour councillor in Swansea, said the process \u201cflies in the face\u201d of assurances made by party leader Sir Keir Starmer.<\/p>\n

Welsh Labour said its Welsh Executive Council and local members were part of the panel for choosing candidates.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Two new candidates were announced in Welsh seats yesterday<\/a> \u2013 Torsten Bell for Swansea West and Alex Barros Curtis for Cardiff West.<\/p>\n

But constituency Labour Party members in both those seats have said they were not informed ahead of the announcement.<\/p>\n

One member in the Cardiff West constituency, who wished to remain anonymous, said they had been given \u201cno input to the decision at all”.<\/p>\n

“We weren\u2019t told anything about the process beforehand.”<\/p>\n

Mr Evans, a member in Swansea West, said the process \u201cflies in face of assurances by Keir Starmer that all MPs will be decided by Constituency Labour Parties.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

‘Questions for leadership’ <\/h2>\n<\/p>\n
\n

\u201cThat clearly hasn\u2019t happened here. It can\u2019t be a coincidence that the candidate here is from London,” Mr Evans added.<\/p>\n

“The wishes of Swansea West members are not being considered at all in this process.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another member told BBC Wales that the \u201crole of the constituency Labour parties are being eroded and there are questions for the Welsh leadership on their impact on this decision making process.”<\/p>\n

Alex Barros-Curtis, who has been chosen to stand in Cariff West, grew up in north Wales and has served as the UK Labour Party\u2019s executive director of legal affairs.<\/p>\n

Torsten Bell, the candidate chosen for Swansea West, is chief executive of the economic think tank the Resolution Foundation and a former labour treasury adviser.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\n
\"GettyGetty Images<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

First Minister Vaughan Gething joined UK Labour deputy leader Angela Rayner at Welsh Labour’s general election campaign launch in Llandudno last week<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n
\n

In May, Mr Bell wrote an article in the Guardian arguing in favour of lifting the UK government\u2019s two-child benefit cap, saying scrapping it would \u201cimmediately lift about half a million children out of poverty.\u201d <\/p>\n

This is despite the current UK Labour policy to keep the cap.<\/p>\n

Plaid Cymru MS Sioned Williams said: \u201cWhen Labour candidates are parachuted into Welsh seats, the least voters should expect is transparency on where they stand on important issues.<\/p>\n

\u201cKeir Starmer is notorious for wanting every Labour candidate to sing from the same hymn sheet and Mr Bell should come clean on whether his loyalty to the Labour whip is more important than his independence of thought.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Announcing the selection of both candidates, Welsh Labour said: “We\u2019re pleased that despite the expedited process, the panels were formed by representatives from the Welsh executive committee and local members.<\/p>\n

“Torsten brings a wealth of experience in economic policy and tackling child poverty. He will be real champion for Swansea West.<\/p>\n

“Alex has extensive legal experience and is a campaigner for social justice issues.”<\/p>\n

The Conservative Party has been asked to comment.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

The candidates in Swansea West are:<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n
\n

Labour – Torsten Bell<\/p>\n

Conservative – Tara-Jane Sutcliffe<\/p>\n

Plaid Cymru – Gwyn Williams<\/p>\n

Liberal Democrats – Mike O\u2019Carroll<\/p>\n

Reform – Patrick Benham-Crosswell<\/p>\n

Green Party – Peter Jones<\/p>\n

Trade Unionist & Socialist Coalition – Gareth Bromhall<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

The candidates in Cardiff West are:<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n
\n

Labour – Alex Barros-Curtis<\/p>\n

Conservative – James Roberts Hamblin<\/p>\n

Plaid Cymru – Kiera Marshall<\/p>\n

Liberal Democrats – TBC<\/p>\n

Reform – Peter Hopkins<\/p>\n

Green Party – Jess Ryan<\/p>\n

Workers Party of Britain – Akil Kata<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n


\n
Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

2 hours ago Catrin Haf Jones,BBC News Getty Images Torsten Bell, chief executive of the Resolution Foundation think tank, has been announced as Labour’s candidate for Swansea West Welsh Labour is facing questions from local members about general election candidates being \u201cparachuted\u201d into \u201csafe seats\u201d. Some local party members have raised concerns about being kept […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":63838,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/bbcx\/grey-placeholder.png","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[603],"tags":[2309,50,4408,1032,843,5896,4984],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63837"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=63837"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63837\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":63839,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63837\/revisions\/63839"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/63838"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=63837"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=63837"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=63837"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}