The all-women shortlist to become Liverpool’s next mayor has been scrapped.
Applications for May’s upcoming elections were reopened on Tuesday but none of Anna Rothery, Wendy Simon and Ann O’Byrne were invited to apply.
Last week, the Labour Party temporarily suspended the voting process in order to reinterview all three candidates, with two currently holding local office.
Cllr Simon is serving as the Liverpool’s acting mayor following Joe Anderson’s decision to stand down in December while Rothery is the current Lord Mayor.
A Labour spokesperson said: “We are committed to ensuring members are able to choose the right candidate to stand up against the Conservatives, lead Liverpool out of the coronavirus crisis and fight for the resources that the city desperately needs.”
Responding to the controversial move, Cllr Rothery has called on her party to reverse their ruling and warned that she will challenge it legally if required.
She said: “Like many people across our city and our movement, I’m shocked by the party’s chaotic handling of the selection for Liverpool mayor.
“Instead of a positive, unifying campaign for our city, we are faced with what looks like an undemocratic failure of process.
“I stood because I know our city needs a socialist mayor to clean up local politics, deliver a local Green New Deal and leave no one behind.
“I am humbled by the support I have received as someone firmly rooted in our trade unions and community groups, and who wasn’t part of the previous executive.
“I welcomed the deviation last week from the formal NEC process to include more scrutiny of candidates but not to remove transparency and accountability from the process.
“I hope party HQ sees the outrage its decision has caused across our city and the harm it is doing to our party’s reputation and changes course.
“If the decision stands, then I will be left with no choice but to challenge it legally.”
Former shadow chancellor John McDonnell, a native of the city, also condemned Labour’s decision to scrap their original three-person shortlist.
“This fiasco leaves the Labour bureaucracy wide open to charges of sheer incompetence or a political stitch up or both,” he tweeted.
“If there was a problem with any candidate it should have been dealt with earlier or is the problem the socialism of a possible winner?”