• JOHN Gulliver misrepresents the process for selecting candidates for council elections and he reports without comment or substantiation an allegation that Labour Party members in Kentish Town did not understand it (Is ‘efficiency’ undermining Labour’s democracy?, September 21).

There are two stages in a local Labour Party’s nomination of candidates for its ward: shortlisting and selection.

At the shortlisting meeting, the field of choice comprises all those on the Labour Party’s panel for the whole borough of Camden, so it’s not surprising that they aren’t expected at the local meetings for all the wards.

At the selection stage panel members shortlisted for each ward are invited to the relevant meeting.

The new feature in the Labour Party’s process is that local branches are given the option of dispensing with some or all of the selection meeting’s business.

This surely makes sense where Labour Party members know their sitting councillors and wish those councillors to stand again. In that situation a local branch can vote to make those councillors its candidates at the shortlisting meeting.

And that is what happened in Kentish Town. My guess is that this may be due to the councillors’ conscientiousness in coming to branch meetings and subjecting themselves to democratic question and challenge, month in and month out.

The process was explained in full to Kentish Town members twice; in advance in writing and at the shortlisting meeting. Members had the opportunity to ask about it before it got under way. At that stage, nobody indicated that they had not understood the process or what was being voted on.

JAMES KENNEDY
Secretary
Kentish Town Labour Party