Labour’s selection of parliamentary candidates has rapidly picked up pace since Rishi Sunak announced that the general election will take place on July 4th.
Leading allies of Keir Starmer including three members of Labour’s national executive committee are among those to have been selected this week, but a number of safe, target and suspended-MP seats are yet to have their Labour candidate confirmed.
NEC members Mark Ferguson of Unison and Michael Wheeler of Usdaw were among those selected on Thursday, as well as former Starmer adviser Chris Ward, now a consultant at Hanbury Strategy, in Brighton after the sitting MP’s deselection. It follows the selection of former Rachel Reeves adviser Heather Iqbal and leadership allies Luke Akehurst of Labour First – also on the NEC – and Labour Together’s Josh Simons on Wednesday.
A string of retirement seats still needed to be filled just weeks out from the election, after a flurry of Labour MPs announced that they would be standing down after the general election was called last week.
Some seats required a new Labour candidate following the suspension of the sitting MP, one new seat needed a candidate, and some more non-Labour-held seats have either never had a candidate or seen theirs stand down or (in the case of Faiza Shaheen) deselected.
Here is our rolling list of the candidates selected, which will be updated with new announcements as we get them:
Remaining retirement seats
- Birmingham Selly Oak (West Midlands). Steve McCabe →Alistair Carns
- Cardiff West (Wales). Kevin Brennan →
- Ealing Southall (London). Virendra Sharma →
- Gateshead Central and Whickham, formerly Gateshead (North East). Ian Mearns →Mark Ferguson
- Halifax (Yorkshire and The Humber). Holly Lynch →Kate Dearden.
- Leyton and Wanstead (London). John Cryer → Calvin Bailey.
- Makerfield (North West). Yvonne Fovargue → Josh Simons.
- North Durham (North East). Kevan Jones → Luke Akehurst.
- Queens Park and Maida Vale, formerly Westminster North (London). Karen Buck → Georgia Gould.
- Smethwick, formerly Warley (West Midlands). John Spellar →
- Sunderland Central (North East). Julie Elliott →
- West Ham and Beckton, formerly West Ham (London). Lyn Brown →
- Worsley and Eccles, formerly Worsley and Eccles South (North West). Barbara Keeley →Michael Wheeler
Suspensions
- Brighton Kemptown (South East). Lloyd Russell-Moyle →Chris Ward.
- Swansea West (Wales). Geraint Davies →
New seats
- Stratford and Bow (London) →
Target seats
- Altrincham and Sale West (North West), (initial candidate stood down) – Connor Rand.
- Birmingham Northfield (West Midlands), (initial candidate stood down) →
- Chingford and Woodford Green (London), (initial candidate deselected) →
- Dewsbury and Batley (Yorkshire and the Humber) – Heather Iqbal.
- Dudley (West Midlands) – Sonia Kumar.
- Hyndburn (North West), (initial candidate had been suspended) – Sarah Smith.
- Rochdale (North West) – Paul Waugh.
- Tipton and Wednesbury (West Midlands) →
Read more of our 2024 general election coverage here.
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