A rare opportunity

Following the resignation of the Tory MP for Wakefield after his conviction for a sex offence, there will be a by-election in the city—a constituency which was close to my old seat of Morley and Rothwell. Up until 2019 it was held by a Labour woman MP, so I would expect the party to want to ensure that a female candidate is chosen to fight the by-election, as would normally be the case if the election followed a Labour female MP standing down. But because there has been a male Tory MP in the intervening period I wouldn’t be at all surprised if male parachutists are already eyeing up the chance to land in what should be a significant contest for Labour. If Labour doesn’t win the by-election, which can be called at a time of the Tories’ choosing, then it would be a devastating blow for Keir Starmer, especially if we don’t perform well in the local elections on May 5th.
 
Who could be contemplating a run? Might David Miliband come to our international rescue? Or might Ed Balls strictly come dancing around the members? His name might not go down too well, since he lost, or perhaps even gave away my successor seat of Morley and Outwood. And would Starmer want a ’big name’ character returning to Parliament? Both of the aforementioned would come with leadership ambitions. On the women’s side, Frances O’Grady who is leaving her post as head of the TUC might fit the bill, but she is probably one of the few people one could think of who actually deserves a seat in the Lords. There will be a plethora of locals looking for support, and in the words of one resident quoted in the press what Wakefield doesn’t need is an Islington type, a remark I think that was aimed more at the previous Labour MP than Jeremy Corbyn. We must always remember that there are two ‘Islington Types.’ Better to have a genuine Yorkshire ‘type’ I think. That’s not discriminatory is it?