Labour’s problems with selecting a candidate for the Glasgow East by-election shows how important selecting the right candidate is for a by-election, and why I am still convinced that re-selecting candidates for by-elections is the right approach.
The background of course is the argument over whether the Liberal Democrats should automatically reselect candidates for parliamentary seats when there is a by-election. I think it is right that we do as the pressures on being a by-election candidate are huge compared to being a candidate in a general election in a seat that wouldn’t normally get any media coverage. As I mentioned about Elizabeth Shenton’s selection in Crewe & Nantwich, how many PPCs have to face Jeremy Paxman? Not many. The skill set in a parliamentary by-election is also very different. In a by-election your campaign is organised for you by the campaigns department and you have a ready-made campaign team and so your main task is to relate to the voters, not make any major gaffs and be a credible candidate to win. In a target seat you have to help build or maintain a campaign team and appear to be a credible MP too. In a development seat you need a PPC who can build up a team and perhaps start off by organising everything. Different seats and different circumstances, mean you need your candidate to have different skills.
In the case of George Ryan, he decided himself that a by-election campaign would put too much pressure on his family. But in other circumstances the obvious candidate may believe they are perfectly able to be a by-election candidate, but the local membership and the party know differently. Reselecting is the only way round it. In most by-elections we have either already had candidates in place who have then restood or we have not had an existing candidate and so started from scratch. We shouldn’t start changing the rules just because of two recent incidents where we have been criticised for selecting a different candidate.
