Labour selects Dawn Butler for Brent Central

Uniting behind Dawn?

Former Brent South MP Dawn Butler has been selected by Labour for the Brent Central seat, winning in the third round of voting. Butler lost to Sarah Teather in 2010.

Clearly more people like Marmite in Brent that I thought!

According to reliable sources Butler won narrowly from Sundar Thava, tipped by me as a possible outsider winner yesterday. There was only a handful of votes in it at the end of the day in which Sundar performed impressively but Dawn Butler was ahead on postal votes. Parmijit Dhanda and Sabina Khan were knocked out in the early stages.

With such a narrow margin the question is whether activists will line up behind Dawn Butler and get out on the streets for her. The prospect of another Tory or Coalition government may be enough to do the trick.

Runners, form and a tip for Labour's Brent Central race as it nears finishing line

So very soon Brent Central Labour Party members will be free of the emails, circulars, texts, and knocks on the door from the five hopefuls for the Brent Central parliamentary candidate nomination.

It's quite hard to tip a winner because my sources are all over the place and more keen to say why a particular candidate is unacceptable rather than who will make a great MP.

Even the LRC appears to have decided that none deserved a collective vote of support so individuals are going their own way. In the Green Party RON appears on all ballot forms. RON stands for re-open nominations and is chosen  if you feel none of the candidates are suitable or a wider field is needed. If Ron was standing in the Brent Central Labour ballot I think he may do quite well

Dawn Butler seems to be the Marmite candidate but some have been won over by her skills as a speaker and in debate. Sabina Khan has been working extremely hard, personally lobbying many individual members, but has also attracted quite a lot of background criticism. Parmijit Dhanda although plausible on the surface has a substantial number of detractors based on his record. Zaffar van Kalwala has his fans but apparently did not come over well in the interviews.  Sundar Thava was somewhat undermined by his own decision to put a photograph of himself wielding a machine gun  on his campaign website.

I can claim no inside knowledge but if I was to tip an outsider who may come through the field it would probably be Sundar Thavapalasundaram. He impressed at the Labour Party public meeting on Syria which seemed to allay some of the concerns over his military background and that photograph. His job as an NHS doctor has gained him respect as well as his position on the Fabian Society National Executive.  He appears to be a 'slow burner' who has gained ground over the last few week.

The Fabians are quite influential in Brent and amongst some of the Council Executive. Thava's Operation Black Vote mentor, Sadiq Khan, has also been a presence in Brent since Muhammed Butt's former political adviser, Jack Stenner, a Young Fabian, went to work for him.

Five to go on to Labour's Brent Central ballot

Labour's Brent Central Parliamentary Selection Committee has chosen five candidates to go on to the ballot of members after today's interviews, according to my sources.

The selected contestants are said to be the four candidates who got most nominations from wards and affiliates: Dawn Butler, Sabina Khan, Zaffar van Kalwala and Parmijit Dhanda plus Dr Sundar Thava who as I reported via Twitter this morning has had a late surge of support.

This information has not been officially confirmed.

The ballot outcome will not be known until December.

Meanwhile Dawn Butler has tweeted her congratulations to Uma Kumaran followed her selection as Labour PPC for Harrow East.

More Labour Brent Central nomination results

Parmijit Dhanda and Sabina Khan were nominated by Kensal Green ward as PPCs for Brent Central and Dawn Butler tweeted that she had one Harlesden with a big majority. Zaffar van Kalwala lost the male Harlesden nomination by one vote to Bobby Thomas who is currently Mayor of Brent.