A PROSPECTIVE parliamentary Labour candidate has criticised members of the party who he believes are attempting to 'derail' the selection process.

In a letter sent out to members of the Copeland constituency Labour Party (CLP) on Sunday, June 11, and seen by The Whitehaven News, Labour Party selection candidate Josh MacAlister criticised what he believes is a 'small group of members' who he says are trying to 'derail the process' by making 'false claims' against him, using the letter to try and make his case to the Copeland CLP members.

Mr MacAlister, who is seeking to be the parliamentary candidate for the newly-created Whitehaven and Workington seat, said: "Members had six strong choices to choose from and for their own reasons four have decided to step back from the race.

"Two great candidates remain and I believe either of us will do West Cumbria proud as Labour’s candidate."

Despite what he described as a 'positive and outward looking campaign', many have criticised the selection process due to the 'exclusion' of 200 Workington Labour party members from having a vote, due to boundary changes which would see the town of Workington be in the same constituency as Copeland when the boundaries are ratified on July 3.

Mr MacAlister said he does not believe the protests from members in Workington to campaign for their vote is ‘comradely conduct becoming of members of the Labour Party' - and said there were untruths around why Workington members had not been included.

He said that members taking part in such protests were ‘undermining the Labour Party’.

The letter said: “Unfortunately, a small group of members who are not supporting my campaign are attempting to derail the process by making spurious and false claims.

"I refute these in the strongest possible terms, and I do not believe this to be comradely conduct becoming of members of the Labour Party.

"The first is that Workington members are being excluded from this vote in order to favour my campaign.

"Like many other constituencies across the country, and across Cumbria, the Labour Party made the decision to select our next MP on current rather than future boundaries.

"I was surprised by this but once that decision was made, I respected it and took the process seriously.

"Members of the Workington CLP executive who are now calling for a halt to this democratic process, in which 180 members have already been issued with e-votes or postal votes, have publicly backed one of the candidates in the selection and are planning to protest at the hustings next week.

"Attempts to disrupt or change the rules of an election mid-vote only undermine the Labour Party as a whole."

Mr MacAlister said that members now needed to focus on selecting a candidate who could ‘build a strong campaign’ to take on a general election which his letter suggested may ‘come at any moment’.