Union chooses London candidate for election
Britain's biggest union has named a former London politician as its candidate to become Wigan's next MP.
The move to parachute former Asylum and Immigration Minister Barbara Roche via one of Labour's safest Parliamentary seats following the retirement of Neil Turner MP has prompted a huge row in the union.
It was confirmed a fortnight ago that the party's National Executive Committee has carried out its controversial threat to name the Wigan and Makerfield seats for 'all-women' selection panels in an attempt to boost female representation in Westminster.
Barrister Mrs Roche was MP for Hornsey and Wood Green for 13 years until she lost the seat and a 10,500 majority in 2005.
In her Government career she has been Parliamentary Under Secretary of State in the Department of Trade and Industry, Financial Secretary for the Treasury, Minister of State for the Home Office, Cabinet Office and Office of the Deputy Prime Minister.
She is known as an arch-Blairite and confirmed New Labour loyalist.
Mrs Roche has already made one attempt to re-enter the Commons, running for the Labour Party nomination in the safe Labour seat of Stockton North, but despite being on the final shortlist, she was eventually defeated by the current MP for the seat, Frank Cook.
A Unite spokesman confirmed that it has chosen Mrs Roche to be its candidate in the forthcoming Wigan selection process and North West regional secretary Paul Finegan welcomed her nomination.
He said: "Barbara Roche brings a wealth of experience as a former MP and government minister.We'll be urging Unite members to support her in the forthcoming selection."
Secretary of Wigan (No 54) Unite Branch Ken Brindle declined to make any comment.
But one senior Wigan Unite member said today: "I really wonder is she knows about the depth of feeling about what has gone on here in Wigan.
"When Unite members in Wigan hear that they are being mandated to vote for somebody they have not had any choice at all, locally, in choosing, there is going to be a heck of a reaction.
"The Unite leadership is telling people that there wasn't time to hold a selection meeting involving members of the Wigan branch, which is why they have held their own to select Barbara Roche.
"As far as I am concerned this is a total stitch-up and what people feared has now happened at the first opportunity with a London-based politician being foisted on us.
"She fell out with her local party and they ended up refusing to campaign for her, which is why she lost the Hornsey seat to the Lib Dems in 2005.
"If she ends up as Wigan's official Labour candidate I predict the exact same thing is going to happen here."
Mrs Roche, 55, was educated at the Jews Free School and Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford, where she achieved a Bachelor of Arts.
She trained in law and was called to the bar, at the Middle Temple, in 1977 and counts theatre-going as one of her main interests.
No official date has been set for the hustings, but it must take place within the next three months.
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Thursday 02 September 2010
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