Open letter on Liverpool from Labour’s left

Dear Sir Keir Starmer, General Secretary, NEC Chair/Secretary

We are writing to express our serious concerns about the way in which the Liverpool Mayoral Selection process has been handled, and to express our alarm at what looks like an attempt to railroad through a new candidate before we have answers about why the previous shortlist was scrapped.

Reopening the selection on the eve of ballots arriving with members, and preventing all 3 shortlisted candidates – Wendy Simon, Ann O’Byrne and Anna Rothery – from reapplying, is unprecedented.

Thorough fair scrutiny of prospective candidates, especially in consideration of the unique context in which this election is taking place, is welcome. That should not mean carte blanche to remove all transparency, fairness and accountability from the process.

The party must immediately provide clarity and transparency about why this has happened and why each of the 3 originally approved shortlisted candidates has been blocked, and those decisions must be open to scrutiny and challenge.

The previous shortlist included Councillor Anna Rothery who never held a Cabinet or executive role under the previous leadership and, if elected, would have become the first black woman mayor of a UK city. We are aware of reports that she is pursuing a legal challenge to the party’s decision to exclude her. Justice must be allowed to take its course before any replacement shortlist of candidates is imposed and, if Anna’s legal case proves that she was treated unfairly, she must be reinstated to her rightful place on the ballot. The party’s actions would otherwise appear discriminatory and further damage the party’s reputation and it’s standing with BAME communities.

As you will know, the Liverpool Labour Group and a number of Merseyside CLPs have carried motions criticising the way the process has been handled and calling for immediate transparency and accountability. This fiasco has caused extreme consternation in Liverpool, demotivating our members ahead of a crucial election.

Any decision taken on Labour’s candidate, while previously shortlisted candidates remain excluded without due process afforded to challenge those decisions, will be wide open to charges of a political stitch-up and therefore will not have the confidence of the Labour membership or the wider Liverpool public.

We fear that this would cause irreparable harm to Labour’s standing in the city and have a severe detrimental impact in the local and mayoral elections. We are therefore asking the party to change course as a matter of urgency and restore unfairly treated candidates to the ballot sheet for distribution on 8 March.

We look forward to your early response in advance of any further steps being taken in the selection process.

Yours sincerely,

Dan Carden MP

Ian Byrne MP

Bell Ribeiro-Addy MP

Clive Lewis MP

Zarah Sultana MP

Apsana Begum MP

Ian Lavery MP

Richard Burgon MP

Claudia Webbe MP

Patrick Philip Vernon OBE

Lord Simon Wooley, Operation Black Vote

Jacqueline McKenzie, human rights lawyer

Jennie Formby, former general secretary of the Labour Party

Howard Beckett, assistant general secretary, Unite

Sarah Wooley, general secretary, BFAWU

Ian Hodson, national president, BFAWU

Jane Stewart, Unite National Women’s Committee

Sohayalla Wilson, vice-chair, Unite North West BAME committee

Pete Pascal, CWU North West BAME lead and equalities officer for Mersey Branch

CWU Greater Mersey branch

CWU Warrington mail centre

Zita Holbourne, national chair, Black Activists Rising Against Cuts (BARAC) UK

Sunny Lambe, Black Labour Movement UK

Merseyside BLM Alliance

BLM Leeds

BLM Stoke

BLM Enfield

BLM Taunton

Calderdale Against Racism

Merseyside Caribbean Centre

Labour Party LGBT+ Network

Cllr Sarah Morton

Cllr Alison Clarke

Cllr Tim Jeeves

Cllr Lena Simic

Cllr Gerard Woodhouse

Cllr Ahmed Ali

Cllr Majid Dar

Cllr Azra Ali

Cllr Nasrin Ali

Cllr Amna Abdullatif

Cllr Amanda Pinnock