Labour reveals results of ‘future candidates programme’ to applicants

The Labour Party revealed the results of its ‘future candidates programme’ in emails to applicants on Thursday, issuing acceptances and rejections to thousands of hopefuls wanting to stand at a local and national level.

There were 360 places up for grabs and thousands of applications to the scheme, which aims to support members putting themselves forward for Westminster, Holyrood, the Senedd, or as mayors, police and crime commissioners or councillors.

Applicants were supposed to have been told of the outcomes in September and were going to have a Zoom call with the leadership at conference, but the process was delayed. A call with Keir Starmer is set to take place on November 1st.

Momentum had encouraged its members to apply. A source from the group told LabourList on Thursday that every Labour left applicant they were aware of had been rejected, including councillors, ex-staffers and Bernie Grant Leadership Programme graduates.

“Purely factional selection programme,” the source said. It was pointed out that there was no national executive committee (NEC) oversight. LabourList understands that one current NEC member from the left applied and was rejected.

In response to the criticism from the party’s left over the rejections from the training programme, a Labour source said: “This isn’t factional. We just aren’t insulting voters with piss poor candidates anymore.”

Successful applicants to Labour’s training programme include former parliamentary candidates, such as Emma Whysall (Chipping Barnet), Natasa Pantelic (Chesham and Amersham) and Ashley Dalton (Rochford and Southend East).

Other high-profile activists to get on include former NEC member Jasmin Beckett, London regional board vice-chair Shama Tatler, ex-organiser Abdi Duale, leading Jewish Labour Movement figure Ella Rose and the co-founders of Migrants for Labour.

Applicants were told that the programme would be a mix of webinars and face-to-face learning, that they would be expected to complete homework and other assignments, and that their progress would be monitored with required pass marks.