How is Labour handling the tricky round of parliamentary selections in seats where a sitting MP has either quit or been expelled from the party?

This is always a tricky subject. Local parties can become deeply divided over the fate of their estranged MP (who can often be like family to long-serving members) while party chiefs need to make a careful judgement about the individual seat and whether claims of a personal following for the MP might translate into a personal vote if they were to stand as an independent.

The received wisdom, however, is that independents struggle, regardless of whether they are sitting MPs. In the 2017 election, Simon Danczuk received just 1.8% of the vote in his Rochdale seat, after he was expelled from the party.

Still, in a marginal seat the possibility that a former MP might stand, clattering into a new candidate and gifting the seat to another party, is very real. So how is Labour responding in those seats with MPs that have resigned or been forced out of the party?

In Sheffield Hallam, the deputy leader of Sheffield City Council, Olivia Blake, was recently selected as a replacement for the suspended Jared O’Mara from an all-women shortlist (AWS). This made sense, given the allegations against O’Mara for his juvenile sexist postings on social media. (A hipster university seat, Hallam is reputed to have the highest number of people with a Phd in the country).

However In Barrow and Furness, where John Woodcock resigned from the party following allegations – (and they are just allegations) of sexual misconduct – the party did not impose an AWS, selecting former soldier and Network Rail employee, Chris Altree, from an open shortlist on Saturday to defend Labour’s wafer-thin majority of just 209.

The process to select a candidate in Bury South is gathering pace, following the resignation of Ivan Lewis, the MP for the seat since 1997 and a former minister and frontbencher. Again, Lewis was suspended over allegations of sexual misconduct. With a majority of just 5965 – and with the Tories in a competitive second place – the party cannot afford to make a mistake with the process here.

Lewis is popular locally and party chiefs will be worried that if he stands as an independent, he will undoubtedly carry support among the large Jewish community, particularly in the context of Labour’s shambolic handling of anti-Semitism allegations in the party (the ostensible reason Lewis quit the party before Christmas). Uncut gathers the regional office is consulting with the constituency party about making the selection an AWS (which, as in Hallam, seems a sensible course).

The party still needs to decide what happens in Birkenhead to Frank Field. Like Lewis, Field resigned the whip over what he felt was the leadership’s inert response to dealing with antisemitism in the party. Seasoned insiders on Merseyside insist that if he resigns and triggers a by-election ahead of the next general election, Field would win, such is the affinity he has with traditional working-class voters in the seat and vice versa. Whether this is true, remains moot, but any contest would be messy and divisive, especially given the rancour that already exists inside the local Wirral party.

Finally, there’s Peterborough, where Fiona Onasanya was last week jailed for lying about a speeding offence. Although so far refusing to resign her seat, it seems inconceivable she would survive a recall petition. In a seat with a slender 607 majority, picking the right candidate becomes absolutely critical to any hope off retaining the seat.

Given calls from the left for the mandatory selection of all Labour MPs – which is, in effect, the deselection of many – the risk that defeated MPs would stand for their old seats, depriving the party of seats it should otherwise win, is very real and should give eager Corbynistas pause for thought.

Tags: Fiona Onasanya, Frank Field, Ivan Lewis, Jared O'Mara, Jeremy Corbyn, John Woodcock