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A FORMER member of the Labour Party’s national executive committee (NEC) has said that a lack of democracy in the party’s parliamentary candidate selection procedure was to blame for the choice of Jared O’Mara.
Martin Mayer, secretary of Sheffield Trade Union Council and former Unite delegate on the NEC, said that Mr O’Mara had been forced on Sheffield Hallam Constituency Labour Party (CLP) for the 2017 general election by a panel of three members of the committee.
Mr O’Mara won the seat from Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg, but he was later suspended from Labour after being accused of making misogynistic, racist and homophobic comments.
He resigned from the party, did not contest the 2019 general election and was jailed for four years last week on six counts of fraud.
Mr Mayer said that if Sheffield Hallam CLP had the chance to interview Mr O’Mara as part of the usual selection process, it would have spotted his “misogynistic and abusive personal behaviour” and he would not have been selected.
“Like many other candidates chosen for the 2017 general election, he was never interviewed and no background checks were taken,” the former NEC member said.
“This was the result of a highly controversial decision of the NEC to prevent the constituency Labour parties at local level making the decision on who their candidate should be, which would have been the normal democratic process.”
At the time of the selection, the NEC was split between supporters and opponents of then leader Jeremy Corbyn.
Mr Mayer said that “the undemocratic manoeuvring of the right-wing opposition to Jeremy Corbyn” and lack of scrutiny was responsible for Mr O’Mara’s selection and subsequent election to Parliament.