Alperton Council By Election

Labour's candidate in the Alperton Brent Council by election is reportedly suspended.  This does not mean that he is off the ballot paper.  Once a candidate is duly nominated, he appears on the ballot unless he withdraws, which has to be done by himself, his spouse or his agent on the day that the list of candidates is announced.  As he still appears on the Council web site, he presumably has not done this.  This means that he will be on the ballot paper described as "the Labour Party Candidate" and no one can do anything about it, including the candidate himself.

I expect that once the by elections are over, enquiries will be made within the party about how this failure of vetting occurred.  Not least because it was the responsibility of a Labour Party body called the Labour Campaign Forum (LCF), which also failed to submit a Labour Party submission on ward boundaries.  The Labour Party will have to be told why this was either not carried out, or carried out inadequately.