Labour 'struggled to find candidates for upcoming Red Wall elections'
Labour has struggled to recruit candidates in its traditional Red Wall strongholds for May's local elections, a leaked memo suggests.
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Party insiders in North East have told LBC they have been forced to open up selection to candidates with "no experience" and nominate party staff members as paper candidates - who are expected not to run campaigns or win seats, just appear on the ballot slip - due to a lack of applications.
It's the latest in a series of blows to the prime minister, Sir Keir Starmer, who has endured the most torrid week of premiership so far - marked by internal criticism and controversy surrounding Peter Mandelson’s friendship with Jeffrey Epstein.
In the North East, council elections are scheduled for South Tyneside, Sunderland, Newcastle, Gateshead, Hartlepool and North Tyneside.
And the Labour Party has said it is typical at this stage in the electoral cycle not to have selected candidates for every ward – adding selections have now been made in Labour-held seats, and 94 percent of other seats.
However, only weeks ago, vacancies remained even in historically safe seats - such as the Byker ward in Newcastle, which had been held by Labour since its creation in 1980, until 2024, when one of its three seats was taken by the Greens.
Party sources have said they have never seen interest levels this low before.
A leaked email from the Jarrow and Gateshead Labour Party, sent earlier this month and seen by LBC, urges members to “seriously consider giving assistance to the Borough of South Tyneside in putting your name forward.”
It also documents a number of vacancies across the area, and adds that “no experience is required” to run as a candidate.
A source in the party said that they have had difficulties in filling candidacies – especially in mining communities.
Dave Wood, who served as a Labour councillor in Newcastle for more than 30 years, is among those who have left the party.
He says that he’s “not at all surprised” that the party is struggling to field candidates.
“They’ve only got themselves to blame. It makes me sick.”
A Labour source rejected the allegation that they are struggling to fill vacancies, and said reaching out to members to gauge their interest in running is the normal process for elections.
Dave added: “Some of the ward parties – you can now count the members on your hand, and numbers are dropping off for Labour party meetings too.”
Feeling sidelined, he and other long-serving councillors became disillusioned with Labour after the government scrapped the Winter Fuel Allowance. Together with five other councillors, Wood formed the East End Independents.
In total, there have been 11 Labour party defections at Newcastle city council since 2024, meaning the party lost overall control of the council they’d held since 2011.
There have been seven other Labour councillor defections across the North East in the last few years.
Labour did not respond to requests for comment on how many wards remain without candidates across the North East, if staff are being asked to consider running, or who had sent the email asking for candidates.
Sources in Newcastle, South Tyneside, and Sunderland report that the party is suffering with demoralisation, which is having a knock-on effect on its ability to recruit candidates.
Jamie Driscoll, the ex-Labour Metro mayor turned Green, paints a grim picture of the party’s current state: “I was talking to one Labour MP recently who said, ‘Jamie, we’re not whippable now. We know that being in the Labour Party is not an electoral asset. I’d do better as an independent.’”
Whilst he served as North of Tyne mayor, Jamie says there was “always competition for winnable wards.”
In his experience, this late in the cycle, “the only seats without candidates are those Labour thinks they will never win.
“The fact that there have been loads of seats without candidates - including many where there's current Labour councillors - shows that they don't think they're winnable.”
He added nearly everyone at Green Party potential candidate meetings are ex Labour members or voters. The party’s membership in Newcastle has increased five-fold.
When asked about allegations Labour are struggling for candidates, James Murray, Chief Secretary for the Treasury told LBC: “The Labour Party has a great number of people who can stand for office, with some great candidates being put in place right across the country.
“We know we can take all the decisions nationally, but we need some great councillors on the ground to make sure that makes a real difference to people’s lives.”
He added the party want to win every seat they contest in May, and will “fight for every vote.”
A Labour spokesperson said: “We’ve had great success in recruiting high-quality candidates across the North East. We’ve filled every vacancy in places with a current Labour councillor, and 94% of all the available slots.
“We’re excited to talk to residents about how we’re delivering for them – with money off energy bills, free breakfast clubs being rolled out in schools, government funded childcare expanded, and rail fares and prescription charges frozen.”