Labour secretary to stand against party in Stoke

The Labour Party secretary in Stoke-on-Trent has said he is going to stand as an independent candidate in the forthcoming general election.

Gary Elsby said he would stand against his party in protest at the selection of television historian Tristram Hunt as the city's Labour candidate.

Mr Elsby said it was also a protest that there were no local names on the party's nominations list.

He said the local party had not been allowed to compile a list of names.

"We want a view from Stoke-on-Trent, we want our view to go through to London, not their view imposed on us from outside," he said.

Retiring MP, Mark Fisher, won the seat with a majority of nearly 10,000 at the last general election.

The television historian Tristram Hunt has been picked to stand as a Labour candidate in the general election.

He will represent Labour in the seat of Stoke-on-Trent Central after beating two others in a selection process.

But the BBC's Michael Crick said some party members were unhappy about having a shortlist imposed on them which did not include any local candidates.

The retiring MP, Mark Fisher, won the seat with a majority of nearly 10,000 at the last general election.

Mr Hunt overwhelmingly won the contest to fight the seat for Labour, getting 50 votes.

The other candidates, Oxfordshire councillor Saj Malik and London-based journalist Dr Joe Ukemenan, got seven and six votes. Earlier, a rebel attempt to stop the vote was beaten by a margin of about two to one.

Our correspondent said some party members were considering shunning Mr Hunt and backing an independent Labour candidate instead.

The constituency secretary of the local Labour party, Gary Elsby, said he would announce shortly if he would stand as an independent.

Mr Hunt, lecturer in modern British history at Queen Mary, University of London, is the author of several books as well as being a regular columnist and broadcaster.