Labour in Hull East: family business?
Posted on Thursday 23 August, 2007
Filed Under New Labour
Coronations are one thing. A hereditary monarchy is another. The Guardian website follows up a story in the Independent this morning, announcing that John Prescott is likely to step down as MP for Hull East at the next election.
The House of Lords is likely to beckon for Chipolata Boy, a one time trade union militant. But it was the concluding paragraph that caught my eye:
Two men rumoured to have their eye on Mr Prescott’s Hull East seat are his son David, and Chris Leslie, former MP for Shipley and now director of the New Labour thinktank the New Local Government Network.
Something about the notion of politics as a family business, a la the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, leaves an unpleasant taste in the mouth.
I don’t know if the empirical research would bear this out, but it seems to me that the number of spouses, sons and grandsons of Labour MPs making it to Westminster has increased considerably in recent elections.
They range in their politics from Peter Mandelson and Lindsay Hoyle to leftwingers Ann Cryer and John Cryer, respectively widow and offspring of the late Bob Cryer.
Hilary Benn would not even have made it onto the ballot paper in the recent deputy leadership contest if his old man had not called in a few favours.
Of course one can always look at individual cases and argue that they made their way on their own merits. John Cryer used to be a workmate of mine, and I know that he ran basically as a Labour standard bearer in Hornchurch in 1997, seeing little chance of taking a Tory stronghold. Fair dos.
But inheriting a seat from your dad is something else entirely. Surely Hull East CLP has not degenerated into a wholly-owned subsidiary of Prescott & Sons?
The comments box is open for anyone with inside information on the contest, especially on any other potential hats in the ring.
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17 Responses to “Labour in Hull East: family business?”
If the Scottish press is right, in Glasgow Central there can be another “from dad to son” selection
Valerie Wise, former GLC councillor and former leader of Preston Council, was the Left wing choice at the by-election selection meeting in Preston constituency in 2000, following the death of her mother Audrey Wise. Valerie gave an excellent performance despite the emotional issues surrounding it, only a few weeks after her mother’s death.
She easily won the largest number of votes (92 out of just under 200 IIRC). However one of the other candidates, former MEP Mark Hendrick, launched a vitriolic attack on her late mother, saying that she stood outside the mainstream of the Labour Party and was a permanent oppositionist who had done nothing positive. He also expressed opposition to a “dynastic” approach to selecting MPs. When asked if there was anything he would not vote for in parliament if Tony Blair asked him to, he said “No” … but said he would express some reservations if New Labour ever thought the death penalty should be reintroduced (!).
In the eliminating ballot, not one person shifted vote for or against Valerie Wise. However, Hendrick progressively won every vote of those who had voted for another candidate as they were eliminated, and he narrowly won the selection. On his first day in parliament, a “proud day for him and Preston” he reputedly said, he voted (twice) for the privatisation of Air Traffic Control.
For many of us, it marked the end of our decades long engagement with the Labour Party. The fact was that the majority of members (just) wanted something else – some of them are regretting it now, as they have a parliamentary lackey who does nothing for his constituents.
But were we wrong to support the previous MP’s daughter? I think not. She was clearly the best candidate with extensive experience on both the GLC and Preston Council and within the Labour Party. She lived locally, her kids went to local schools, she was a chair of school governors, she had not gone for a selection anywhere else.
So I don’t have a problem with defending voting for a relative of the previous MP, IF they are principled and the best candidate.
Postscript
Valerie resigned from the Labour Party recently and is currently supporting Respect. She is considering standing in the next general election against Hendrick as either a Respect or independent socialist candidate.
Ehhh ?
Eliminating ballot selects candidate, and then you whinge that it is undemocratic.
I would have thought that the actions of Ms Wise demonstrate how wise the party was not to select.
Of course those who would prefer permenant opposition ….
I never complained it was undemocratic. The vote was conducted in exemplary fashion. The problem was that because the members voted for the most clear right wing candidate, most on the left lost any notion that the left could ever capture the party.
However in terms of the original topic, it is an illustration that sometimes the left votes in favour of the family member and the right against.
Valerie Wise hasn’t a cat in hell’s as a RESPECT candidate.I knkw it’s utter crap at the moment – but she should get back and fight in the Labour Party. Spoke recently to Preston councillor Matthew Brown who is bringing a contingent I hope to our LRC event in Hebden bridge Sept 29 Valerie would be most welcome, too.Maybe John cryer should go for Hull. Not all political families are bad news….
PS: If any Preston or surrounding area comrades read this, more details of LRC event on John McDonnell’s blog……
Valerie Wise hasn’t a cat in hell’s as a RESPECT candidate.I knkw it’s utter crap at the moment – but she should get back and fight in the Labour Party. Spoke recently to Preston councillor Matthew Brown who is bringing a contingent I hope to our LRC event in Hebden bridge Sept 29 Valerie would be most welcome, too.Maybe John cryer should go for Hull. Not all political families are bad news….
PS: If any Preston or surrounding area comrades read this, more details of LRC event on John McDonnell’s blog……
Valerie Wise hasn’t a cat in hell’s as a RESPECT candidate.I knkw it’s utter crap at the moment – but she should get back and fight in the Labour Party. Spoke recently to Preston councillor Matthew Brown who is bringing a contingent I hope to our LRC event in Hebden bridge Sept 29 Valerie would be most welcome, too.Maybe John cryer should go for Hull. Not all political families are bad news….
PS: If any Preston or surrounding area comrades read this, more details of LRC event on John McDonnell’s blog……
Valerie Wise hasn’t a cat in hell’s as a RESPECT candidate.I knkw it’s utter crap at the moment – but she should get back and fight in the Labour Party. Spoke recently to Preston councillor Matthew Brown who is bringing a contingent I hope to our LRC event in Hebden bridge Sept 29 Valerie would be most welcome, too.Maybe John cryer should go for Hull. Not all political families are bad news….
PS: If any Preston or surrounding area comrades read this, more details of LRC event on John McDonnell’s blog……
Valerie Wise hasn’t a cat in hell’s as a RESPECT candidate.I knkw it’s utter crap at the moment – but she should get back and fight in the Labour Party. Spoke recently to Preston councillor Matthew Brown who is bringing a contingent I hope to our LRC event in Hebden bridge Sept 29 Valerie would be most welcome, too.Maybe John cryer should go for Hull. Not all political families are bad news….
PS: If any Preston or surrounding area comrades read this, more details of LRC event on John McDonnell’s blog……
Valerie Wise hasn’t a cat in hell’s as a RESPECT candidate.I knkw it’s utter crap at the moment – but she should get back and fight in the Labour Party. Spoke recently to Preston councillor Matthew Brown who is bringing a contingent I hope to our LRC event in Hebden bridge Sept 29 Valerie would be most welcome, too.Maybe John cryer should go for Hull. Not all political families are bad news….
PS: If any Preston or surrounding area comrades read this, more details of LRC event on John McDonnell’s blog……
Valerie Wise hasn’t a cat in hell’s as a RESPECT candidate.I knkw it’s utter crap at the moment – but she should get back and fight in the Labour Party. Spoke recently to Preston councillor Matthew Brown who is bringing a contingent I hope to our LRC event in Hebden bridge Sept 29 Valerie would be most welcome, too.Maybe John cryer should go for Hull. Not all political families are bad news….
PS: If any Preston or surrounding area comrades read this, more details of LRC event on John McDonnell’s blog……
Susan – you would rather vote for Mark Hendrick?
At least in Preston, socialists have had a principled choice in the three elections he has contested. Hopefully they will have one next time and Valerie will run Hendrick rather closer than most people could guess, whether she stands as Respect or independent.
I’m told there were as many Respect supporters as Labour at the McDonnell public meeting Matthew organised I didn’t go and suspect that is an exaggeration, even though I heard it from a Labour Party member who was there, but it does say something about the balance of activist forces.
Matthew Brown and Michael Lavalette are always on the same side in the council chamber, but unlike Matthew, Michael doesn’t face attempts at deselection by the right wing and had over 50% of the vote in his last election. There are a lot of ex-labour people around Respect in Preston like Elaine Abbot, Val Wise and Steve Brookes, so it’s not just the SWP and hangers on.
Hendrick, who is a Salford boy as I recall and a Co-op party stalwart, won because of a tragic lack of attention to 2nd preferences and other minutae of the selection protocols from the left. So many candidates fall away because they haven’t bothered to read the rubric and do what is needed to get 51% of the vote by the exhausting end of the whole thing.
David Prescott is a step change in various ways from Big Daddy. No idea what his politics are but his press relations outside the hospital when his dad was getting excessive medical attention was strong, his vocabulary rich but within OED, and he seemed pretty together.
If it is not friends and family of MPs, MEPs etc it can be ditto of other party figures – agents, chairs, stalwarts etc.
But this is nothing new and not all that widespread really is it? Considering there are 300 or so seats up most times. What are you going to do? Debar rellies? Skip generations?? Pick candidates by lots??
PS David Prescott has been linked with this seat for at least five or six months as I recall. Google it someone …
most on the left lost any notion that the left could ever capture the party
It is a century and counting and not enough of the hard left have yet realised this. As for Ms Wise leaving, good riddance.
If you think an alliance with Islamists is the road to socialism/social democracy then you are an enemy of progress.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article2327904.ece
Perhaps this is more acceptable
But will reespect still exist at the next election, given the bust up brewing between GG and the SWP:
See the latest from the SWP’s internal mailing here:
http://www.socialistunity.com/?p=725