Labour deselects its Shrewsbury candidate on eve of election

You have to hand it to the Corbynistas: they never forget who their real enemy is.

The Shropshire Star reports colourfully:

Last Saturday shoppers on Shrewsbury's Pride Hill were greeted by Labour campaigners handing out leaflets listing the virtues of Dr Laura Davies as the town's potential MP. 

Three days later and Dr Davies is no longer the face on the party's Shrewsbury leaflets, or its choice for a general election candidate, having been deselected by the national party, just 37 days from polling day.

Davies lost a vote of no confidence in the local party back in June, but as the Star explains:

At the time the national Labour Party refused to take action, and insisted the matter was one for the candidate to resolve with the CLP. 

But, due to internal Labour processes that changed when Boris Johnson was finally granted his wish for a general election. 

The party's procedures mean that prior to a general election any candidate with outstanding complaints against them is re-interviewed by an NEC panel.

And that panel decided she should go.

The local party's official reasons for seeking to deselect her were that she had failed to 'work with and engage with members' and had struck out with a policy of her own on the fraught subject of the future of Shropshire's hospitals.

But the Star reports that

The decision has been greeted with shock and surprise from many, with some members described as "deeply distressed" at the move, which sources suggested had been led by "an extreme left wing influence" in the local party.

The Shrewsbury and Atcham constituency is currently represented by the Conservative Daniel Kawczynski, who would be high on many people's list of MPs we would be better off without.

Labour's decision to occupy itself with internal politicking at so late a stage will surely have hurt their chances of removing him.

The Liberal Democrat candidate, since you ask. is Nat Green.