Letter sent by members of the Watford selection committee to the NEC. They sent the letter after they were told that the Momentum-backed candidate Mike Hedges, who had not been included in their shortlist of parliamentary candidates, would be on it after all. They concludes he was not up to the standard of the others

We are writing in utmost protest concerning the actions of some members of the national executive committee to overturn the decision of the democratically elected selection committee for shortlisted applicants for the PPC of Watford by the unilateral imposition of an applicant, Mike Hedges from Islington.

Watford is a key marginal and any perception that a candidate is being imposed on local people by Labour party HQ or an affiliated union will end up handing this seat to the Tories. We lost by 2,000 votes at the last election. We need this seat to form a Labour government under Jeremy’s leadership.

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As democratically elected members of the selection committee, who took their responsibilities extremely seriously, we are furious that an observer of the panel has behaved in a way which is incongruous with his engagement with us.

Prior to the long listing meeting on Tuesday 21 November, we took care to review the procedures to ensure that the process was clear and invested significant time in reviewing applications. We understood that any applicant securing the nomination of one or more of our CLP-affiliated unions would automatically be long listed. We sought confirmation with regards to the need to put any such applicant directly through to the short list and we have it in writing that this was not a requirement, but that the nomination must be given full consideration by the committee.

At the shortlisting meeting on Sunday 26 November all the interviews, discussions, and decisions were observed by both the regional representative and the NEC representative. Clarification was sought by a member of the committee as to whether the applicant with affiliated union nominations should be automatically shortlisted, and once again it was confirmed by these representatives that this was not the rule but that his nomination should be given full consideration.

This applicant was discussed at length; including his support by the unions and his performance in both his written application and the interview. The fact that the applicant claimed support of other unions, not affiliated to Watford CLP, was also considered by the committee in making its decision. The procedure says that the NEC representative must be satisfied that the shortlist is of the highest possible quality. Adding an applicant who was not ranked ‘by the selection committee’ as one of the better candidates goes counter to this requirement and cannot be right.

Both the regional and the NEC representatives confirmed in the meeting Mike Hedges’ nomination had been given full consideration and this is in writing. Both the representatives readily accepted the four shortlisted candidates decided upon by the selection committee.

There was little dissent about the four, there was an almost unanimous consensus on the short list and both the Regional representative and the NEC representative complimented the committee, and the procedures secretary, on a well-run process with full discussion of each of the applicants. Every applicant, including Mike Hedges, answered yes to the question “do you believe the procedure to have been conducted fairly”.