It is a difficult time to be a Labour MP. With the Greens on the left and Reform on the right, many are contemplating an electoral pasting in their patches come May. Now, a fresh challenge presents itself, at a time when open questions are being asked about Keir Starmer’s leadership. In the coming days, the party is expected to start asking Labour MPs if they wish to confirm they are seeking re-election. This is to allow the process later this year to begin for ‘trigger ballots’ – a vote of branches and affiliates of a Constituency Labour Party (CLP) with a Labour MP who wishes to stand again at the next election. Roll up, roll up one and all…
These ballots decide either to let the MP stand as the Labour candidate again without needing to face other challengers or to make the MP go through a full re-selection process. Normally, these would be expected to be held towards the end of a parliament – but this time the party has opted to go slightly earlier. Some three years out before a general election is due to be held, Labour will shortly begin asking CLPs if they are happy to stick with their MPs next time around. Senior sources stress that doing this vote so early is a sign of strength: with 411 MPs elected in 2024, this will be a much lengthier process than in the last parliament, when the party was half its current size.
But given the current mood among Labour activists, some within the party worry that ‘trigger ballots’ could become a proxy for grassroots discontent. In the last parliament, only three MPs faced selection contests – Apsana Begum (unsuccessful), Ian Byrne (unsuccessful) and Sam Tarry (successful). The same processes are being used this time around – how many will face such a ballot from their own activists this year and next?
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