Momentum activist and Better Together chief picked in first wave of PPC selections

Labour has named a party official backed by Momentum and the former head of the unionist campaign in Scotland in the first group of parliamentary candidates to be appointed since the general election was called.

Rhea Wolfson, a constituency Labour Party (CLP) representative on the ruling NEC, will take on Hannah Bardell, the SNP MP for Livingston.

Wolfson, above, was voted on to the NEC last year as the left-wing slate won a raft of seats with backing from Momentum and the Campaign for Labour Party Democracy.

“The only way to get rid of this miserable Tory government and deliver a radical Labour government is to vote Labour. We need a government led by Jeremy Corbyn for the many, not the few,” she said.

“The election on June 8 is the establishment versus the people, and only Labour is on the side of the people.”

Meanwhile Blair McDougall, who was campaign director at Better Together, will contest East Renfrewshire against nationalist Kirsten Oswald.

He said it was “ridiculous” that one of the most strongly pro-union seats was represented by the SNP.

“That’s because last time the votes of the majority were split. In East Renfrewshire the Tories are a distant third and are not at the races here. I brought together the anti independence majority in 2014 and I’m going to do the same on June 8.”

The full list of candidates to be announced today is as follows:

• Cara Hilton, Dunfermline and West Fife;
• Blair McDougall, East Renfrewshire;
• Paul Sweeney, Glasgow North East;
• Rhea Wolfson, Livingston.