Today Hartlepool, tomorrow ... Labour

A Wright local difficulty

Local Labour members have broken their silence about Wright in the closing days of the campaign. Not only are many not campaigning for him. They will not even vote for him, and are plotting to deselect him before the next general election.

"I predict," said Keith Fisher, a member of 30 years, "that regardless of how this Thursday's election goes, there will be a new candidate standing here for Labour in the general election."

The anger dates back to the candidate selection process in August. Members were given 24 hours to submit nominations by email. Twenty six were submitted, including several long-serving councillors, Mandelson's old election agent, and a former MEP. The NEC vetted them, and presented the local party with a shortlist of three. Wright was the only Hartlepool name on it. "Local, long-standing members, not even allowed to stand before their own local party? Judged unsuitable even to look at! How can that be? It was shocking - a disgrace," Fisher said. "We were given a choice of one. We felt railroaded into it, and we're seething. I can only assume the NEC had an image of what they wanted, someone who'd say yes to everything and wouldn't rock the boat. And that's Iain Wright for sure. He's a lightweight."

One of the rejected nominees, a Labour councillor called Robbie Payne, told me had offered to bet another member £1,000 that he could put the name of the winning candidate an envelope, before the entire selection process had begun. "It's hard to say anything about it without people thinking it's just sour grapes, but the truth is Iain's exactly what New Labour want," he sighed. "A typical puppet, so they can pull his strings. He's got no politics; he doesn't believe in anything." Others were praying" he would lose. Their anger had been stoked by an offer Wright's team had made last month to the local mayor, an independent. In return for the mayor's endorsement, Labour would stand a weak candidate against him at the next mayoral election. The mayor has declined to endorse anyone.

Labour won't allow me into their HQ, according to angry members, because the office has had to employ hired hands to stuff envelopes and carry out deliveries. Come the general election, when the budget for this is no longer available, Labour will need the support the local members currently boycotting Wright's campaign - and this will trigger Wright's deselection. "If he's really the right candidate for us, well then he'll win selection again, won't he?" shrugged Cllr Payne. Fisher said he "measured" Wright by the manner of his selection. But the NEC's decisions were not the candidate's, and there is a danger that with Wright so tightly chaperoned, the vacuum has been filled with unjust speculation. Wright has been a councillor for three years, so has his own record to stand on. Supposing he were elected on Thursday, I asked him what he thought he would be remembered for on the council.

"I think I'd say, being courteous and responsive to local issues. I've tried to be as local a councillor as possible."

But apart from being local, what else did he offer? The question seemed to throw him. "Well, I'm local-"

But so was the taxi driver outside - and many of the names rejected by the NEC. If he excluded being local, could he describe his other qualities?

"Well you see I don't think you can exclude it. You see, I'll live in the town." But Blair is seldom in Sedgefield, and presumably he didn't think the prime minister ought not be its MP. He looked blank.

"I think I'm bright." He paused. "I think I'm articulate. I've been to university. I can string a sentence together." Then he relapsed. "I think it's absolutely fantastic that one of our own could be going to parliament on Thursday."

Could he name a single Labour party policy he would be willing to argue against in parliament? "That's a difficult one." He thought about it. "I would say on a whole range of issues, like the economy, like education, like foreign policy, the Labour government is moving in the right direction."