Exclusive: Labour’s Nottingham East selection shortlist

LabourList has been sent the following shortlist of four candidates for Labour’s Nottingham East parliamentary selection contest:

• Shaista Aziz – Oxford City councillor, journalist, comedian, anti-racism campaigner, co-founder of Labour Homelessness Campaign (video)
• Neghat Khan – Nottingham City councillor and council cabinet member, chair of Nottingham Muslim Women’s Network (video)
• Nadia Whittome – Hate crime worker, anti-Brexit and pro-free movement activist, co-founder of Labour for a Socialist Europe (video)
• Taiba Yasseen – Rotherham councillor, campaigner in Rotherham 12 case and for disability rights (video)

One of the candidates from this all-BAME, all-women shortlist will replace Chris Leslie – now in The Independent Group for Change – as the Labour candidate in Nottingham East.

It will come as a surprise to some that longlisted candidate Louise Regan – the local party chair, an NEU officer who secured trade union backing and support from two branches – did not make it on to the shortlist.

Whittome, who has been shortlisted, tweeted: “Although I completely support all-BAME all-women shortlists, it’s wrong that Louise Regan – who had branch and union support – was kept off. I will be expressing this to the NEC.”

Update, 8.45pm: Regan has said “I don’t believe this decision can stand” and a petition has been started to demand that she is added to the shortlist. It has been brought to the attention of the panel members Nicola Heaton, Yasmine Dar and Jim Kennedy.

Whittome, known for her anti-Brexit work, is backed by UNISON, FBU, BFAWU, NUM and ASLEF trade unions as well as Open Labour, Paul Mason and frontbencher Clive Lewis.

Labour-affiliated unions GMB and Usdaw have backed Neghat Khan, the local councillor who is still in the running.

The local party in Nottingham East drew up its own longlist via a selection committee, whereas most other ongoing selections had their longlists decided by a panel of national executive committee (NEC) members.

Local members were concerned when the process was paused. As Steve Lapsley wrote on LabourList, Leslie had been imposed centrally in 2010, while the 1987 candidate, Mohammed Aslam, was also imposed and unexpectedly lost that year.

Standing as a Labour candidate in 2017, Leslie 71.5% of the vote with a majority of nearly 20,000, making this a safe seat for Jeremy Corbyn’s party.