Two more candidates selected in target seats

Another week, another round of Labour selections. One PPC selected this weekend, Will Straw, is already making headlines, whilst Sarah Sackman received a warm welcome as Labour’s new candidate in Finchley & Golders Green.

Finchley & Golders Green: This leafy North London constituency selected lawyer Sarah Sackman as their new PPC on Sunday. She was born in East Finchley, grew up in the constituency and campaigned passionately to save Friern Barnet Library from closure. Sarah acts as a barrister in public planning and environmental law. She’s also a member of the Jewish Labour Movement and spent some time working at Israel’s Supreme Court in Jerusalem. Sarah will have to fight hard to win the seat, no. 89 on Labour’s list of target seats in 2015, held by the Tories by a majority of 5,809 in 2010.

Rossendale & Darwen: This Lancashire constituency is no. 70 of Labour’s target seats. This weekend local Labour members selected Will Straw as their new PPC. Will’s selection made headlines in the Daily Mail and the New Statesman (and not just because his father Jack is Labour MP in the neighbouring constituency Blackburn). Will was President of the Oxford University Students’ Union (OUSU), founded the political blog Left Foot Forward, and is an associate director at IPPR. Now he will have to fight to turn Rossendale and Darwen red again, after the seat swung to the Tories in 2010.