Labour may be sued for dropping left-winger

Liz Davies affair: Constituency seeks conference debate on candidate accused of defying party whip as councillor

JONATHAN FOSTER

and PATRICIA WYNN DAVIES

The Labour Party may be sued by its Leeds North East constituency for allegedly victimising Liz Davies, the Yorkshire party's left-wing parliamentary candidate ditched on Wednesday by the national executive.

The selection of Ms Davies, 31, was quashed after the executive considered a dossier critical of her conduct as a local activist and Labour councillor in Islington, north London. Ms Davies, a barrister, has denied the allegations and a meeting last night of Leeds NE party officials heard they may have a good case for challenging the NEC's ruling.

The constituency management committee decided to take further legal advice and prepare a fund-raising campaign. The case against Ms Davies did not meet standards of evidence required by Labour party rules, or benchmarks of natural justice, Andy Hollas, the party chairman, said. "She was excluded because of her politics. The allegations about her poll tax summons and breaking the whip on Islington council were not upheld."

Before going to court, Leeds NE will try to put the Davies case before the Labour conference next week. An emergency resolution claiming her selection was correct and legitimate was tabled yesterday.

Ken Livingstone, the leftwing MP for Brent East, said yesterday that he would back such a motion, condemning the dossier against Ms Davies as "tittle-tattle and gossip". He said an attempt had begun to keep socialists out of Parliament.

Ms Davies's home constituency of Islington North has also tabled an emergency resolution in her support.

There are serious question marks, however, over whether a conference debate will be allowed because of the fear of setting a precedent. The decision as to whether the issue is an emergency and whether the motions are in order will be made by the conference arrangements committee tomorrow afternoon. If the debate does get off the ground, the union block vote could ensure it is defeated. Mr Hollas, who did not vote for Ms Davies, said Leeds NE was not a hard-left constituency. "Liz Davies was selected because she was the most powerful and articulate candidate. She drew support from across the spectrum," Mr Hollas said. "She is not a Trotskyist, nor ever has been, and we would temper an MP, make sure she was accountable to the constituency party." The issue for local activists was their autonomy. "Are we to be drip-fed from party headquarters?"

The crisis was caused by an unpopular women-only ruling that in effect deselected a popular and successful candidate. "New Labour have brought this on themselves," a senior councillor and Leeds NE member said.

If the local party has to start its candidate selection again, men may be allowed on the shortlist because the region has achieved its quota of women in "winnable" seats.

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