An ally of Sir Keir Starmer who has served as the leader of Newcastle City Council for more than a decade has been deselected by hard Left Corbynites.
Nick Forbes, who attends Sir Keir’s shadow cabinet, on Wednesday said he was “immensely sad” that he had not been selected as the Labour candidate for his Arthur’s Hill ward amid an insurgency from supporters of the party’s Left wing.
Labour sources said the hard Left had “taken him out” in a ballot on Tuesday night after 11 years as council leader and a 15-year stint at the head of its Labour group.
Mr Forbes is also a friend of Angela Rayner, Labour’s deputy leader, and Morgan McSweeney, one of Sir Keir’s closest advisers.
His deselection from the council ward will mean he loses his seat on Labour’s ruling National Executive Committee (NEC) in September unless he can find another seat to run in. The ward voted 13-4 to replace him with Abdul Samad, a 25-year-old degree graduate.
‘I have promoted Labour’s core values’
On Wednesday night, Mr Forbes said he may try and win selection in another ward for the forthcoming local elections.
“A number of party members have already approached me, asking if I will stand in a different ward,” he said, adding that he would “take some time to consider these options”.
“I have promoted Labour’s core values of fairness, equality and social justice in all my work in the ward,” he added. “I am therefore immensely sad that Labour Party members have chosen a different candidate to stand for Arthur’s Hill in the May local elections, although I congratulate Abdul Samad on his victory and wish him every success.”
Two Labour sources said Mr Forbes had lost the seat to the party’s hard Left, with one adding that Newcastle’s local party associations had not been “sorted out” since Jeremy Corbyn stood down.
‘The Left have taken Nick out’
The source said there was also perceived to be a division between Mr Forbes and Nick Brown and Chi Onwurah, two local MPs who served in the shadow cabinet under Mr Corbyn.
“I think that the Left have taken Nick out. But he has enemies on other sides of the party as well, because there’s a long standing kind of local division in Newcastle,” the source said.
Mr Forbes previously lost the Labour selection battle for the 2019 North of Tyne mayoral elections to Jamie Driscoll, a Left-wing candidate endorsed by Corbynite MPs John McDonnell and Clive Lewis. Mr Driscoll also won the overall election and Mr Forbes continued in his role as council leader.
If Mr Forbes does not secure a selection in another ward ahead of May’s local elections and loses his seat on the NEC, it could slightly shift the balance of power between supporters of Sir Keir and the Labour Left.
In a vote last month on whether Mr Corbyn should be readmitted to the parliamentary party, viewed as a key battleground between the factions, Sir Keir won by 23 votes to 14 in favour of his continued suspension.
