Momentum activists have been busy on Twitter and Facebook promoting their ‘deselection roadshow’ meeting with Chris Williamson tomorrow night.
And to add a little extra incentive they’ve invited a couple of extra speakers. One of them is Steve Hedley (pictured above). He is billed as a ‘national officer of the RMT’ union. Which of course he is. But he is also a veteran opponent of the Labour Party.
Until 2013 he was a member of the Socialist Party, the organisation formerly known as Militant. He left not due to ideological differences but to insulate the party from embarrassment over allegations of domestic violence made against him by his former partner.
In 2012 and 2014 he stood against Labour on the Trade Unionist & Socialist Coalition (TUSC) ticket, first for the London Assembly then in the Newham council election in East Ham South. He finished in 7th place with just 3% of the vote.
Despite an RMT investigation clearing him of the domestic violence allegation, comrades on the far left were sufficiently disturbed that they petitioned the TUSC executive to remove its endorsement of his candidacy ahead of the election, saying
“We are writing to ask you to support this petition, opposing the selection of Steve Hedley as a candidate for the Trade Union and Socialist Coalition (TUSC) in East Ham South ward, Newham:
“We do not think this an unreasonable demand for a socialist organisation that claims to stand for ensuring “women have genuinely equal rights.”
I am not a Momentum member, so it’s not up to me to say who they should and shouldn’t invite to meetings, but it seems peculiar that an organisation of Labour members wants to hear the opinions of someone like Mr. Hedley on a matter of internal party democracy.
Unsurprisingly, I won’t be there to hear him.
forestgatedotnet 
Mr Hedley appears to be holding an MP44 assault rifle, (1944). in front of a stand with nazi period helmets.
https://news.sky.com/story/jeremy-corbyn-says-he-will-not-protect-labour-mps-facing-deselection-11494775
After boundary change, it will be Mandatory
Re-selection anyway
Which rather makes Chris Williamson’s roadshow a waste of time, doesn’t it? Maybe he should concentrate his efforts on averting the catastrophe of a hard Tory Brexit, which will destroy jobs, undermine workplace rights and decimate public services.
Labour’s rules include a passage on which sitting MPs have first claim on new constituencies. Undoubtedly true for Stephen Timms in the new, slimline, East Ham.
Looks unlikely to me to be true for Lyn though in either Leyton and Stratford or the Poplar and Canning Town seat. Haven’t done the maths though.
3. Where sitting MP’s have constituency boundary changes:
A. The General Secretary will invite sitting MPs to indicate which, if any, constituencies they wish to seek selection for. MPs who do not have any territorial interest in a seat cannot be considered for selection for a seat that has an MP(s) with a territorial interest seeking reselection, unless the decision of the CLP in the trigger ballot is to move to an open selection.
B. An MP with a substantial territorial interest in a new constituency may seek selection for that constituency as a matter of right.
C. For the purposes of reselection, a substantial territorial interest is defined as 40 per cent or more of registered electors of the previous parliamentary constituency as at the freeze date transferring to the new parliamentary constituency.