Unite regional officer chosen to replace Chris Williamson

Tony Tinley, Unite regional officer for the East Midlands, has been selected as Labour’s parliamentary candidate in the marginal seat of Derby North.

The trade unionist will stand for Labour in the constituency instead of Chris Williamson, who was suspended from the party over a series of comments related to antisemitism.

Williamson was suspended by the party several times, and not endorsed as a candidate in the upcoming election by Labour’s national executive committee this week.

Tinley started work at 17 as an apprentice at Rolls-Royce, and recently helped secure a landmark agreement between the company and Unite that covered 1,700 managers in Derby and Hucknall.

After being elected as a shop steward, Tinley worked his way up to the positions of political officer and regional officer. He stood unsuccessfully as a Labour candidate in May’s European elections.

Derby North was won by Labour in 2017 with a majority of just 2,015 votes. It was narrowly lost by Williamson in the 2015 general election, when it went to the Tories.