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Jeremy Corbyn has ignited a furious row within Labour, after a veteran local council leader accused him of trying to ‘parachute’ one of his key advisors into Andy Burnham’s safe seat.

Lord Peter Smith, leader of Wigan council and local party chair launched a furious attack on the Labour leader, telling the Manchester Evening News Corbyn’s team was treating members with “contempt” by lining up Corbyn adviser Katy Clark as candidate for Leigh behind the scenes.

It came as the Corbyn suffered a further blow as a pair of top allies were beaten to another plum northern seat by a local moderate.

Former Corbyn speechwriter David Prescott, the son of former Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott, had eyed up Alan Johnson’s seat in Hull West and Hessle.

But both he and Sam Tarry, one of Corbyn’s leadership campaign chiefs, lost out to local teacher Emma Hardy in the selection contest, held tonight.

(Image: Manchester Evening News)

In a furious attack on Corbyn, Lord Smith threatened to resign as chair of the local party after it emerged that left-winger Ms Clark was being touted as Labour’s candidate in Leigh, after Andy Burnham confirmed he would be retiring to run for Mayor of Greater Manchester.

The suggestion sparked fury among local party members, who had seen Wigan council cabinet member Jo Platt as the frontrunner for selection.

Fears were immediately raised that a deal had been done at Westminster that would see the party’s National Executive Committee speedily confirm Ms Clark’s selection this Friday without their input.

“There will be a huge backlash if somebody is imposed from outside. Nobody has consulted me as chairman,” said Lord Smith, a long-term alley of Mr Burnham’s.

“We could have got together locally and voted but instead some sub-committee is going to decide.

“We are concerned that the party members are being ignored. It amounts to old-school politics.”

Ms Clark, who held the Scottish seat of North Ayrshire and Arran from 2005 until losing it in 2015, had ‘managed to turn a 10,000 majority into a 13,000 defeat’ there, he said, adding that he didn’t think she had ever been to Leigh.

Neither had the party leader, he added.

(Image: Rex Features)

“ Jeremy Corbyn has never been to Leigh and I’m quite happy about that. We have a very different way of dealing with austerity here in Wigan by working with the community and I don’t care what he thinks.”

He said one of Leigh’s local party members had already drawn up an email with 100 or so names of it, ready to send to the party’s headquarters in protest - adding that he intended to ask Leigh councillors to support it.

“If this woman gets the job the first thing I’ll do is resign as constituency chair. I won’t be able to work with her,” he said, adding that his view was based not only on the method of her potential selection but her hard-left views.

“It’s about politics as well as process and this is just showing us contempt.”

Labour is currently scrambling to get candidates in place for seats across the country and is undergoing different processes in different cases.

The selection process for constituencies in which MPs are retiring appears to be particularly swift. In Leigh a shortlist - which is understood to only include Coun Platt and Katy Clark - is expected to go before a National Executive Committee sub-panel on Friday, by-passing local party members.

A Labour party spokesman said no selection decision had yet been made.