The last 48 hours has seen major disruptions in the campaign in Brighton Kemptown, and at the same time showing up Labour and Keir Starmer in the worst, authoritarian light.
Chris Ward, the imposed Labour candidate in Brighton Kemptown who currently works for Hanbury Strategy which lobbies for the gambling and fossil fuel industries
On Wednesday evening the sitting MP, Lloyd Russell-Moyle, was suspended and thereby prevented from defending his seat. Allegations from eight years ago have been made, from before he was an MP. The timing that these allegations have surfaced go well beyond suspicion. While none of us know what the nature of these allegations are, and they may be serious or they might have no substance whatsoever, it shows control-freakery of the worst kind by Starmer and his henchmen and women.
I have had strong and public disagreements with Lloyd but the manner in which he has been purged has been nothing short of disgraceful. In an account of Stalin’s purge of his opponents, it was said: “Stalin enforced a ban on party factions and banned those party members who had opposed him, effectively ending democratic centralism. In the new form of Party organization, the Politburo, and Stalin in particular, were the sole dispensers of ideology.” Replace ‘Stalin’ with ‘Starmer’, and ‘Politburo’ with ‘the NEC’ and you have today’s intolerant Labour Party.
Within hours and with indecent haste, suggesting that this coup d’etat was long in the making, Chris Ward has been imposed as the Labour candidate in Brighton Kemptown. Ward has been close to Starmer for many years. More recently he has worked for Hanbury Strategy, a lobbyist for the gambling industry. The Conservative candidate, Khobi Vallis, by contrast, worked closely with former Cabinet member, Tracey Crouch, to control gambling. On principle, Crouch resigned from the Cabinet in protest at delays in implementing controls of the gambling industry.
So what do Labour voters and members do in Brighton Kemptown. I am sure that many might shift their support to candidates to the left of Chris Ward, candidates like the Green Party’s Elaine Hills and even Khobi Vallis herself who has been running a low-key but increasingly effective campaign, especially in the Deans. At the last election, Lloyd’s majority was 8,061 over the Conservatives and almost 23,000 over the Greens who finished in fourth place. Many Greens, in that election, lent their vote to Labour, not something they are likely to do this time given that Chris Ward’s employer, Hanbury Strategy also acts as a lobbyist for the fossil fuel industry. Can you think of a less appropriate candidate for a seat in Brighton and Hove?
Andy Winter's Blog 
Can we look forward to show trials under Starmer. Who ever called him Keir got it wrong.
Brighton Kemptown: can you imagine a less appropriate candidate for a seat in Brighton and Hove? – TrollTV!
saga of Labour’s poor candidate selection process is gift to their opponents that just keeps on giving.
Following the top brass’s selection of the mother and daughter comb from Leicester, we are treated to the purging of LRM and the imposition of a London-based lobbyists and former bag carrier for Keir Starmer, but not before they’d put former PCC and Labour Leader of the Council Nancy Platts through a faux remote selection interview. The decision to impose the lobbyist bag carrier was leaked by journalist Michael Crick, while the Platts interview was in progress.
she’s called for an investigation, which is likely to take as long as it did in the case of Diane Abbott and probable for LRM!