Rotherham by-election - Yvonne Ridley

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Labour makes last-minute dash to hold off Respect and BNP in Rotherham
Party in disarray following walkouts from members furious at being denied 'local' candidate
Helen Pidd
guardian.co.uk,
15 November 2012

Labour MPs and an army of volunteers have been dispatched to Rotherham to try to keep hold of the seat in the forthcoming byelection. The party fears that George Galloway's Respect party could profit from disarray in the Labour camp following mass walkouts from members furious at being denied a "local" candidate.

Just 13 Labour party members in the South Yorkshire town reportedly voted for the charity director Sarah Champion to contest the seat vacated by Denis MacShane after his resignation over his expenses. But it was enough for her to defeat the only other contender, the former RAF wing commander Sophy Gardner, after around 80 members, including several dozen councillors, stormed out in protest on Tuesday night. They were unhappy at the two-woman shortlist of "out-of-towners" imposed by the party's national executive committee (NEC).

Clearly shaken, Labour ordered any MP within striking distance of Rotherham to put on a rosette and get to the town on Wednesday morning. John Healey, MP for neighbouring Wentworth, who was at Tuesday's shambolic selection meeting, admitted: "It was a very, very difficult meeting. The party members felt very strongly, had a very strong point to make, and made it very effectively. But the fact was, we had to finish the evening with a Labour candidate. We are not going to leave the field in Rotherham open with the EDL and their political wing [the EDL are rumoured to be fielding an independent candidate], the BNP, Ukip and Respect."

But he insisted most of even the angriest members were still going to help Champion's campaign. "Members are starting to come and say: 'I'm really pissed off at the way this has been done. I was part of the making the point last night, but my argument was not with Sarah, but with the party, and I want to make sure we have a Labour MP,'" he said. "Some will stay away [from the campaign trail]. Some will find better things to do in the next fortnight. But for the large part, they had a strong point to make and they made it."

Local Labour members wanted a chance to vote for their preferred local candidate on 29 November, the Rotherham town councillor Mahroof Hussain, who was rejected by the NEC. The official line is that Hussain was not chosen because the party needed a "clean break" in a constituency damaged by both MacShane's dodgy accounting and the child sex grooming scandal, where authorities, including departments of the Labour council, were accused of turning a blind eye to crimes committed mostly by British-Pakistani Muslims.

A Labour insider in London said Hussain was deemed too much of a risk in a constituency being targeted by the BNP on the grooming issue. The BNP polled 10.4% of the vote in the 2010 general election. MacShane won 44.6%, with a majority of over 10,000.

Licking his wounds, Hussain said: "I would have loved to have represented my town, where my father worked in the steel works for over 30 years, and I am disappointed I didn't get the chance to put my case across to the local party. But the NEC chose two other candidates for the shortlist and now the Labour party has chosen a candidate and we need to make sure that Rotherham stays Labour."

Champion, who has only been a Labour party member for two years, admitted it wasn't a nice feeling to have aroused so much anger. "But," she said, "I had all of the councillors coming up since and calling me and saying: 'Sarah, this isn't about you, it's about the process and the procedure.' On the night they were very clear that it wasn't about the candidates … It was the procedure that they were cross about. And I would have been cross. But, you know, we need to make sure that they are consulted the whole way through now. The election is in two weeks."

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Sunday Politics - Rotherham - 2012-11-25