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The frontrunner to be Labour’s candidate for a Yorkshire seat believes he was blocked from being the candidate – despite being backed by his local party – because of a 12-year-old Facebook post about Palestine.
Brian McDaid, who is Assistant General Secretary of the financial services union Aegis, voiced his frustration over the Labour Party’s selection process after being blocked by the National Executive Committee (NEC) at the end of April as the candidate for Skipton and Ripon.
McDaid has shed new light on the opaque and centralised nature of candidate selection, as anger grows in the party over the treatment of individuals like Faiza Shaheen, a left-wing candidate who was barred from standing by the party’s NEC just after the election was called – despite coming a close second to senior Conservative Ian Duncan Smith MP in the Chingford and Woodford Green seat in 2019.
McDaid says he was called to a virtual meeting with several members of Labour’s National Executive Committee in late April, where he was immediately presented with a 2012 Facebook post of his branding Israel a “rogue state” over its actions in Palestine, and condemning “numerous acts of barbarity, war crimes, and atrocities” by the country’s military during the long-running Israel-Palestine conflict.
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The union leadership figure insists the post – which we’ve shared in full below for context – was not antisemitic but instead pointed only to “factual statements” about the actions of the country’s Government and military. Descriptions of “murder” by Israeli forces in the post may be contested by the Israeli Government, but most claims appear to be based on verified news stories.
The rushed selection process – ahead of what was believed to have been a snap General Election coming in May – was devoid of local input, McDaid says. “My local [Constituency Labour Party] said to the regional party, probably about a year ago: ‘Look, we’ve got a candidate, and we’re willing to campaign with him.’
“And then the regional [office] said: ‘It’s down to the NEC’. After that, our chair was trying desperately to get some form of process in place.”
Even after he put in his formal application in January there was “radio silence” for months, McDaid added. The local party heard almost nothing until this April, he said.
Then suddenly, there was a burst of activity.
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When he was finally called for an interview, it was “very rushed” and unprofessional, he recounted.
“It was booked in over Teams for 11 o’clock…11 o’clock came: nothing. Then at 11:20, the [NEC] panel came on. There were five or six of them. There was no introduction, it was straight into it: ‘Can you explain this post?’”
“I recognised the post I shared 12 years ago, before I was an active member. It was difficult to remember, but I said it was factual. Like anything I share on social media, I ensure that it’s fact checked, double-checked, and triple-checked…
“I asked what was the allegation against me here? And they couldn’t say.”
They thanked him for his response and left the meeting.
“Two days later, the regional [Labour party] director called me to say: ‘Unfortunately, the National Executive decided not to take your application forward’. And that was it.”
He asked to find out what the appeal process was – but has not heard anything back since.
McDaid describes himself as a socialist and says the process suggests to him that there is a “purge” in the party of left-wing candidates.
He points to the contrast with NEC figures being “parachuted” into safe seats, including Labour right figure Luke Akehurst who has been chosen as the party’s candidate in North Durham. (There is now a crowdfunding campaign to oppose his nomination, led by pro-Palestine activists).
Labour has now selected a candidate in Skipton and Ripon, Malcolm Birks. McDaid holds no ill feeling against him but believes the process was overly top-down and factional.
“Lots of people have contacted me saying they’ve been put in the same position,” the union activist said.
Despite the setback, McDaid remains committed to his community and activism. “I’ll continue to serve as a town councillor and campaign on crucial issues like mental health, public services, and child poverty.” But bruised by the experience, he will not be out campaigning during the General Election.
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“It’s nothing at all to do with our CLP, who I have the greatest respect and pride for. It’s all down to how I have been treated by the NEC and Central Party,” McDaid said.
He is now calling for consistent and transparent processes on selections within the Labour Party.
Commenting on Labour’s wider selection controversy, Neal Lawson, director of the progressive group Compass, told Byline Times: “Labour seems to have got more than it bargained for last week in the row over the attempt to exclude Diane Abbott and Faiza Shaheen as candidates. Hopefully the widespread backlash to these factional moves should draw a line under this whole saga.
“Labour must recognise that it will need this diversity and pluralism in Government to have any chance of weathering the political storm that will hit as soon as it enters Government.”
Lawson was himself suspended by the Labour party NEC over his alleged support for tactical voting for other parties, to unseat the Conervatives.
The Labour Party was contacted for comment regarding McDaid’s selection.
And Another One
Julian Vaughan, a train driver and ASLEF union activist, was the candidate in 2017 and 2019 in Be