Labour overlooks Anderson for safe Walton seat
Liverpool Mayor Joe Anderson has been overlooked in favour of a relatively unknown candidate as the Labour Party’s Liverpool Walton candidate for the general election on June 8.
Liverpool-born Dan Carden, 30, a Unite Union aide who joined the Labour Party while at school, has been selected by Labour’s National Executive Committee in the safe seat. He is an aide to Len McCluskey, general secretary of the UK’s largest union, Unite.
Following the announcement, the Labour North West Twitter account tweeted: “Congratulations to Dan Carden who has been selected as the Labour Party candidate for Liverpool Walton. #VoteLabour.”
Liverpool Walton is Labour’s fifth safest seat, with 81% of voters giving the party a 27,700 majority in 2015, and the only English seat where the Conservatives lost their deposit.
Steve Rotheram, the constituency’s MP since 2010, said he was standing down after being elected mayor of the Liverpool City Region last week.
Anderson, 59, said the decision shows Labour is “not always a meritocracy”.
He added: “I put myself forward for the selection in Liverpool Walton on my track record of running successful Labour council in a major city and my desire to use those skills for Walton, for Liverpool and a new Labour government.
“Apparently it wasn’t good enough for the panel, and everyone knows why.“
Anderson was the first directly elected mayor of Liverpool, having been elected with 57% of the vote on 3 May 2012. He won a second term in May 2016 with 52.6% of the vote. He was previously leader of the Liverpool City Council from the 2010 Council election until the 2012 Mayoral election.
Anderson has previously said that he will continue in his mayoral position if his MP bid failed.
