It's a mystery... Wirral West Labour candidate selection

By Liam Murphy on Mar 11, 10 03:36 PM

WIRRAL West - what can you say? Stephen Hesford announced - out of the blue - that he wouldn't be standing at the next election and the local party was faced with quickly finding a new candidate.

But it seems to have been a slow old process... Mr Hesford stepped down in January and it is not expected that the result of the postal ballot following this Saturday's hustings will be announced until March 17 - next Wedneday, St Patrick's day, no less.

That leaves less than two months to the day everyone currently expects the election to be held for the candidate to campaign... which leads us on to the next question - who will it be?

In fact it seems pretty much everyone on the west side of Wirral has been sworn to secrecy on this subject.

Labour party's regional office offered a convoluted explanation, which included the suggestion that some of those putting themselves forward had other commitments and would not welcome the publicity. Others have also - apparently - been told not to talk about the selection process.

Even Labour deputy leader Phil Davies - whose name kept coming up during my many calls to anyone who might know what was going on - refused to "confirm or deny" if he was standing.

The rumour is that he will be one of those hoping to be selected for the constituency but he said he had also been told they were not to comment on the subject and referred me back to Labour's regional office - a call I would rather not make again.