With Laura Moffatt’s decision to not stand at the impending election, Crawley Labour party has some big decisions to make.  Well just the one decision really, but it is a big one. Despite what anyone might think, I am not really in the loop with all this.  I declined the chance to go onto Crawley LP’s executive committee as a trade union rep – at that time I didn’t realise how interesting it might suddenly get on there – so I am not privy to the arrangements.As a consequence I don’t know exactly what will happen. Normally the NEC take charge of various aspects of selection when it is this close to an election, to make certain a constituency does not get left without a candidate, but I don’t know how much they will be helping/interfering (delete according to taste) and how much will be left to the local party for shortlisting, but I am sure I, along with all the other members, will be told soon enough about any hustings and selection sessions.

My only involvement will be to vote for whichever candidate I think will make the best MP for Crawley.  They might be a local or they might apply from elsewhere, and it will be interesting to see who might apply.

A few local members have been mentioned in the press as possibilities: Brenda Smith, Ian Irvine and Chris Oxlade.  There are others in the local party who could be in the frame, but not many.   That is not to slight the majority of members, but just to state a simple fact that very few people have what it takes to do the job and to put up with the negative aspects – like the stress, the hours, the attention and so on.  Very few local parties of any flavour will have more than a handful of people up to the job: the local Tories have only a few who would make a decent MP (and Henry Smith is not one of them in my opinion).

A few personal thoughts on the potential local candidates:

Brenda Smith.  Well-liked and well-respected councillor.  Leader of the Labour groups on the borough and county councils. I hope for her sake she doesn’t go for it.  She will have enough on her hands with Jim, and we would have to have county and borough by elections. Also, having three Smiths on the ballot paper could be just a little confusing.

Chris Oxlade.  County councillor and radio presenter. Personally I think he would make an excellent candidate and an excellent MP.  He holds the right views, is not afraid of hard work and obviously is an accomplished speaker.  The only danger is that his local celebrity would have the local Tories encouraging the view that he is a ‘stunt candidate’ chosen purely for his celebrity as they did with Eugene Sully.  That would patently not be true, and wasn’t true in Eugene’s case – he was a candidate before his fame/notoriety.

Can’t blame them for trying though.  I’m sure we did the same when they had Giles Brandreth as a candidate!

Ian Irvine. A good, solid local candidate and ex-bourough councillor.  What you see is what you get, and very committed to the party and the town but may prefer to continue his campaign to be the next Broadfield North councillor.

But what about the ones the local papers didn’t think about?

Colin Lloyd.  An erstwhile borough and county councillor, and very nice chap.  Also I suspect he may be just about the only person in the Crawley party who already has an NEC endorsement to be on the national panel.

Janet Sully. Highly-regarded in the party – how else would she have been top of our candidate list for the last Euro elections (after the sitting MEP obviously)?  Famous for her energy and determination as a county councillor.  Made lots of friends with her very active campaigning in the Euro elections.

Jasmine Samson.  If the party wanted to skip a generation then Jaz has worked for the party and worked for a couple of MPs so she knws what the job involves. An ex-chair of the constituency.

Jim McGough. Another ex-constituency chair and ex-councillor.  Certainly has the mental capacity to be an MP but probably enjoying his retirement too much to consider putting his name forward.

There is a good chance that none of them will even be interested, but there are are possibilities beyond those already mentioned in the papers and slightly further afield there could be members in nearby constituencies who could apply – Bob Fromant (another Euro candidate) for example, or members in Horsham who were too new to the area or too young to volunteer when they had their selection there.

Be interesting to see whether the party tries to parachute a preferred candidate or union official onto the shortlist because I can’t see the local members selecting them unless they happen to be particularly impressive in their own right. Maybe Hopi Sen will send his CV in? Or a colleague from Brighton?  It is all very exciting.

The real challenge will not be in selecting a candidate who would make a better MP than Henry Smith – any of those listed above would meet that criterion – but one who can make the general public see that.

It goes without saying that I will be giving whoever we select my full support and will be out on the doorsteps with them, and I suspect Laura will be there alongside us.