So reports the Liverpool Daily Post:
The Labour party has descended into civil war over Luciana Berger’s success in winning the candidacy for Wavertree.
Last night Walton MP Peter Kilfoyle broke cover branding Miss Berger a “student politician” and questioned her support for Israel, views she shares with Jane Kennedy, the outgoing Wavertree MP who supported her campaign.
Mr Kilfoyle and Ms Kennedy may well have history, but his intervention has merely added fuel to a fire that was already alight since the decision was announced on Sunday.
He has given voice to a feeling of discontent shared with others in the local Labour party.
They are unhappy that a local candidate has been beaten by a young southener perceived as being a career politician.
Perhaps surprisingly, until this selection Luciana Berger had been one of the three Labour candidates for Somers Town and St Pancras ward in the London Borough of Camden, whose seats are up for election in May.
All this Labour in-fighting will certainly help the Liberal Democrat candidate, Colin Eldridge, who has a 2,911 (9%) majority to overturn on the new constituency boundaries. That being less than a third of the Labour majority in Hornsey & Wood Green before 2005, I’ll class that as “small” 🙂
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[…] A few days ago I blogged about the infighting in Liverpool Labour over the selection of Luciana Berger to be their Liverpool Wavertree candidate (majority: 2,911 over the Lib Dems) with Labour MP Peter Kilfoyle attacking her. […]
[…] was also a candidate for the local elections in Camden, London. Labour MP Peter Kilfoyle attacks Luciana Berger’s selection. Off the back of her Camden connection, a Liverpool paper decides to put Luciana Berger’s […]
[…] from bad to worse for Luciana Berger, the newly-selected Labour PPC for Liverpool Wavertree. After mutterings about the selection process, followed by concerns about the candidate living in the same house as hundreds of ballot papers, […]