BARCKLEY SUMNER

DOWNING Street officials are at the centre of allegations of widespread flouting of Labour Party rules governing the selection of parliamentary candidates.
The breaches, uncovered by a Tribune investigation, raise serious questions over whether the choice of prospective MPs is being conducted in a free and fair manner.
A formal complaint has been made by a deselected sitting MP who was told he could not have access to party records because it had been decided he was "going to the Lords".
Downing Street, senior Blairite party officials and at least one loyalist MP are embroiled in the allegations of irregularities, which point to a concerted effort to oust non-Blairites from standing.
In one case, two members of an MP's family were threatened with having their selection vote taken away after their party membership was "rescinded" on a technicality.
Labour's current round of selections has been made less transparent, after it was decided to conceal the names on parliamentary shortlists from the press. This decision was endorsed by Peter Watt, Labour's general secretary.
Serious problems have been unearthed in the north west constituencies of Worsley and Eccles South and Rochdale and also in Milton Keynes North..
Due to boundary changes and a reduction of seats in the Salford area, the new constituency of Worsley and Eccles South was created. Two sitting Labour MPs, Barbara Keeley, who currently represents Worsley, and Eccles MP Ian Stewart sought selection for the new seat in an all-postal vote ballot of members. Mr Stewart also has an interest in the newly created neighbouring seat of Salford and Eccles.
The selection process was completed on December, with Ms Keeley emerging victorious by 133 votes to 118 on a 90 per cent turnout.
It has subsequently been alleged that Ms Keeley, a Blairite loyalist, received considerable assistance, contrary to party rules, from party officials and Downing Street to aid her victory. Mr Stewart has lodged a formal complaint with the party.
Downing Street insiders and senior ministers have confirmed that Ruth Turner, Number 10's director of government relations, co-ordinated party staff, MPs and ministers to assist Ms Keeley. Ms Turner is paid by Labour and is technically a member of the party's staff. As such, she is bound by the party's rules, which state that staff are barred from actively supporting any candidate in internal party elections or selections.
Ms Turner was contacted on several occasions but did not return Tribune's calls.
It is known that Labour's north west regional office preferred Ms Keeley to win the selection rather than Mr Stewart. In spring last year, six months before the selection took place, Mr Stewart was told by a northern MP that Ms Keeley had met with Sheila Murphy on several occasions. Ms Murphy was Labour's regional director of the north west and has subsequently been promoted to become senior regional director for the north.
Within earshot of other MPs, they discussed how to defeat Mr Stewart. During one of the meetings, held in Parliament's Pugin Room, Mr Stewart confronted the two of them and requested that Ms Murphy provide the "same facilities" to him as she had given to Ms Keeley. Mr Stewart was concerned that Ms Keeley had access to a full membership list for the new constituency from March onwards, while he had no such access.
When he spoke to Barry Grunevald, then Labour's north west deputy regional director, now Yorkshire regional director, he was told: "We were told at the regional office that Ian Stewart was going to the Lords." Mr Grunevald denies this. He said: "That is absolute and utter rubbish."
Before the selection, Mr Stewart asked newly-promoted regional director Anna Bunt to inform him if there were any eligibility questions raised about any Eccles member. Following this meeting, Mr Stewart's family received a letter alleging that two of his children were not eligible to vote and that their "party membership should be rescinded". On Thursday November 30, prior to ballot papers being distributed on Monday December 4, he was informed that 15 of his supporters in Eccles were to be removed from the list.
After an emergency meeting, it was discovered that while members in the Eccles part of the constituency had been carefully checked against the electoral register, no such checks had been conducted for Worsley. When forced to do so the eligibility of an additional nine members was found to be dubious.
When Mr Stewart asked Ms Bunt, on the eve of the ballot papers going out, what had happened about the queries in Worsley, he was told they had all been clarified. When he asked for the members' new addresses so he could canvass them, Ms Bunt told him to "go to the council electoral
registration officer".
Both Ms Murphy and Ms Bunt declined to answer Tribune's questions about the selection.
During the selection process, party members in Eccles reported that Ms Keeley was doing constituency casework for members to boost her support. It is strictly against parliamentary conventions for an MP to represent the constituents of another MP.
Ms Keeley said that it was "not true" that she had received an early copy of the membership list. Asked about undertaking casework for people living in Mr Stewart's constituency, she said: "I am aware of the conventions. I am as clear as anyone in the House of Commons that only the constituency MP can do parliamentary casework. They [members] do raise questions about local issues and campaigns."
When asked if she had met with party officials to help plan her selection campaign, Ms Keeley, said: "That is not true at all. The new NEC representative [Anna Bunt] was new to the region and I had never met her."
Friends of Mr Stewart have expressed concern that during the selection process, Ms Keeley wasgiven considerable clearance from the whips office to remain in her constituency but the same opportunities were not given to him.
Mr Stewart said: "Under Labour Party rules, in a boundary change like this, I have a right to show an interest in both the new constituencies. The Worsley and Eccles South process has concluded and I can confirm that I have raised a formal challenge to that process."
A Labour Party spokesperson said: "An NEC panel will be appointed over the next few days who will decide how best to ensure that Mr Stewart's concerns are properly and thoroughly investigated. As part of the NEC investigation those involved in the Worsley and Eccles South selection process, including those named by Ian Stewart, will be interviewed. This is an internal investigation and the Labour Party will take all necessary steps to ensure that the NEC can reach a conclusion without favour or prejudice."
The selection  for the Rochdale constituency, due end on January 22, has been described by one NEC member as "a debacle".
Before the selection began, a regional officer was accused of assisting Simon Danzcuk by allowing his company Vision 21 to conduct a survey of the attitudes of Rochdale members. The shortlisting meeting was halted when a vote of no confidence was passed in the selection process. Several branch nomination meetings had to be re-held after irregularities were discovered. At the reconvened shortlisting meeting, an all-male shortlist of eight was agreed, despite this being contrary to party rules. All members were issued with a postal ballot, after it was discovered that the original postal votes had been opened prematurely.
Mr Danzcuk  and Ms Turner were co-founders of Vision 21. Ms Turner left the company to work at Downing Street.
Serious irregularities have also been unearthed in the Milton Keynes North selection. Labour lost the seat at the last general election but boundary changes have dramatically improved the party's prospects. The seat has a notional Conservative majority of 200. The hustings meeting took place on December 8. Andrew Pakes, a former press officer to sacked ASLEF general secretary Shaun Brady, was announced as the winner.
Contrary to Labour's rules, no party official was at the meeting. Neither the candidates, nor their representatives observed the count, which was conducted by former Milton Keynes North West MP Brian White. The candidates were not told details of the result or how many votes were counted. Nick Toms, a member of the Amicus parliamentary panel, was told by Mr White that he had come "second" and that Mr Pakes had won on the second round and had received "all the postal votes".
Both Mr Toms and the Amicus union have now lodged official complaints about the result.
Mr White said: "I was only asked to chair the meeting the evening before. I followed the rulebook I had in front of me, which weren't the clearest of instructions. The candidates didn't watch the count. I gave the result but no figures were given. The biggest deficiency was there wasn't a regional official in attendance."
Mr Toms said: "As a consequence of concerns raised by local activists and unions, I have now asked for an inquiry into the conduct of the election."
Concerns about the selection process in all three seats are set to be raised next Tuesday (January 23) at the NEC organisation sub-committee.