• REGARDING the appalling treatment of Labour councillors and prospective candidates by the selection committee, Mike Katz’s quoted comments (Labour members walk out of selection meeting in protest at party’s treatment of blocked councillor, January 13) show up the twisted thinking at that level.

His views are contradictory and make no sense whatever. He says if appeals are not upheld it could be “…failure to abide by collective responsibility, letting down their constituents or struggling to carry out their role”.

Later he says “We owe it to Camden residents to pick people who are passionate about representing them”.

So why the hell, then, are councillors who do just that – try to help and support their constituents – regarded as “failing to abide by collective responsibility…”?

No one wants to elect a councillor who will just toe the party line irrespective of any problems arising in their ward. Residents expect them to do something when they have a problem, not sit on their hands because it might upset the party.

Tulip Siddiq, our excellent local MP, is not afraid to vote with her conscience whatever the party decides. So why can’t Camden allow its own councillors to do the same?

It is shameful that excellent and hard-working councillors who turn a blue ward into a red one are later deselected because they asked awkward questions on behalf of their residents. The Liberal victory in West Hampstead says it all.

I am not a party member but a lifelong Labour supporter and this shambolic way of choosing people to represent the party from on high, instead of allowing local people who know how good or hopeless they are to do so, is shameful and, in my view, hypocritical.

It makes a nonsense of all that the Labour Party is supposed to stand for at local level where it is most needed.

I have written similarly to both Sir Keir Starmer and Camden Council leader Georgia Gould, as a voter not a party member, but still await a reply.

I don’t think there is any way either can justify the present selection method which has obviously upset many local people, not just party members.

JOHN STRATTON
Thurlow Road, NW3