Choosing Parliamentary Candidates

Choosing Parliamentary Candidates

It could be argued whether the national party headquarters of the

three major parties should have the power to veto parliamentary

candidates chosen locally. One might argue that the national party

headquarters must not intervene in the selection of candidates locally

because the headquarters might not be informed enough or know enough

about the constituency people's preferences. On the other side, it

could be argued that the headquarters should have the power over any

decisions taken locally because they would know what would be better

for the party as a whole.

Although the local Labour party representatives criticize the system

of headquarters selecting the candidates, senior figures insisted the

system of selecting by - election candidates had worked well for the

past ten years and there was no reason to change it now. So why the

system of special panel should be altered in favor of constituency

representatives selecting the candidates?

John Prescott said that Labour lost some by - elections when

constituency party selected candidates because candidates in by -

elections face special pressures. Labours use of constituency parties

to select candidates did not approve.

But what didn't prove to be good for Labour doesn't mean that it would

not be good for other two leading parties. For example Conservatives

have completely different system of selecting candidates from Labour.

John Major claims that under Conservative Party constitution, the

selection of the candidate is the responsibility of the association.

This argument though, as source C suggests, is "both misleading and

implausible "

All the conservative candidates have to be supported by the National

Union's Standing Advisory Committee. This must satisfy itself that

they are loyal, financially solvent and of a sound character.

Otherwise the person is not recognized as an official candidate and

does not receive the leader's Letter of Recommendation or any central

office facilities or speakers during the campaign.

So, while it's true that the selection of the candidate is the

responsibility of the association, it does not follow that the person