Labour 'unimpressive' on Falkirk

The Labour hierarchy has not been very "impressive" at dealing with the fallout in Falkirk, a m ember of the local party's executive has said.

Brian Capaloff said the party leadership had excluded local party members in Falkirk from its inquiry into the Falkirk selection battle, in the wake of the publication of emails from constituency chairman Stephen Deans which opponents claimed raised fresh questions about alleged attempts to rig the vote in favour of a candidate backed by the Unite union.

Mr Capaloff said Labour's decision to withhold publication of its report meant the local constituency party was unable to gain the closure it needed to move on, and compared the row to an open wound.

" We've been wanting to get an official of the Labour Party to come to a meeting of the constituency of the Labour Party and answer questions of members but they've declined to do that.," said Mr Capaloff.

"We, as a party, have been contacting them, we have been asking questions of them over a considerable period but the answers that we have been getting back have been absolute zero."

He added: " I don't think it's been particularly impressive, personally.

"I think members have been somewhat excluded from the various processes, the Scottish labour Party and the UK Labour Party has been detached from the impact upon individual members."

Speaking on BBC Radio 4's The World This Weekend, Mr Capaloff revealed that Friday was the first time the constituency had been proactively contacted by the hierarchy, after members received a letter from Ian Price, Scottish general secretary of the Labour Party.

Mr Capaloff said: "Finally, they have recognised that there has been some damage done to this constituency and there is a need for a 'package', as they put it, of support for the local party in order to start to heal the wounds and in order to stop us being a wounded animal when it comes to campaigning in the 2015 General Election."

Asked if publishing Labour's internal report into the debacle would help the local party draw a line, he replied: "Th at is absolutely the case.

"Notwithstanding any divides that there might be within the constituency Labour Party there is consensus as far as that is concerned.

"That report, it needs to be published, it has needed to be published for the last few months. The healing process could have been well and truly started. As it is, it's a boil that's been growing that still needs lancing, basically.

Mr Capaloff added that by not publishing the report "we're allowing those papers who would be supporting the Tories to actually dig this wound every now and then and to actually cause yet more pain".