MP alleges irregularities

This Corrupted Labour party is at it again? As investigation to MP's claims of "irregularities" in a high-profile selection contest in which the daughter of a key New Labour figure is among the candidates.

Georgia Gould the 22 year old daughter of “Tony Blair's” former polling guru and close friend Lord Gould is among eight hopefuls contending to be the Labour candidate for Erith and Thamesmead, in South East LONDON

What on earth dose a 22 year old little girl know of life, to stand as a local candidate and representative of the people? In an area she doesn’t even live in? What is labour thinking off now? Party funds from Lord Gould? Or is there some other conspiracy behind this? You just can’t tell with this corrupted government?

The process, which culminates in a vote tomorrow, has been mired in controversy since being taken over by the central party machine, sparking complaints of interference in favour of non "local" candidates.

The sitting MP, John Austin, who is retiring, has lodged a formal complaint with the Labour general secretary, Ray Collins, over alleged rule breaches by campaigners encouraging local party members to sign up for postal votes.

John Austin said; "I have written to the general secretary about alleged irregularities and breaches of procedure,"

"I started off the campaign saying I was going to remain entirely outside the process, but such has been the interference in the later stages that I have been urging people to vote for one of the four local candidates."

He has also made a complaint about the Olympics minister, Tessa Jowell, who made a speech backing Gould in his constituency without telling him a breach of parliamentary convention.

A party spokesman said Austin's complaint would be considered "very seriously" but initial research suggested that the number of postal vote applications was "not unduly high" for such a well-publicised contest.

The spokesman said there was nothing wrong with campaigners explaining the options members had to vote by post and the sort of reasons they could legitimately give for using the system in the interests of a good turnout.

Defending the decision to remove local control of the process, he added: "It has been supervised from the centre because, clearly, it is a high-profile, keenly-contested seat.

"There was going to be a short listing process, but it was decided that the best way forward in this particular case was to allow all of those who had received nominations locally to go through to give them [local party members] the fullest opportunity to select who they want to select."

Austin said he had also written to Jowell and the Commons Speaker, Michael Martin, over her apparent "breach of House of Commons protocol" by not pre-informing him of her intention to speak at a local meeting organised by Gould.

Jowell denied any wrongdoing, saying her attendance at the meeting had not been confirmed until she returned from holiday on the same morning, at which point she wrote to Austin.

His complaint had been sparked by pre-publicity which named her as a speaker after she had agreed in principle to attend, she said.

"It was completely unintentional – it was not like I was sneaking into his constituency," she added, stressing that she had checked that her support of Gould did not breach any Labour rules.

If Gould is selected and is successful in holding the seat for Labour – in which the party, even allowing for boundary changes, has a 10,000-plus majority – she will have a good chance of being the youngest MP in the Commons.

The other candidates are the former minister Melanie Johnson, the Greenwich councillor Angela Cornforth, the Kensington and Chelsea councillor Marianne Alapini, the former Bexley councillor Teresa Pearce, the Unite union official Rachael Maskell, the Greenwich councillor Jagir Sekhon and Emily Bird.

Each will address a meeting of party members and answer their questions tomorrow before a final vote to select the candidate.