The Streatham Selection – congratulations to Chuka Umunna

It has been a demanding few months for Streatham Constituency Labour Party, choosing a candidate to fight the next general election and hopefully succeed Keith Hill as our Labour MP.

If you were a candidate, and there were 47 at the outset, including me, there were over 500 members to speak to, spread out across the eight wards of the constituency. Then there were websites to be created and leaflets to be written, printed and delivered, and a team of helpers to keep enthused.

It was always going to be hotly contested, with hopes and energies running high. In the end there can be only one politician smiling at the end of it.

That candidate emerged after a meeting on Saturday at Dunraven School, where I am a governor. The drama hall – what an apt location! – was packed with well over 200 Streatham members. Another 100 or so had voted by post.

My friend Chuka Umunna was the winner, with my friend Steve Reed coming a close second. My congratulations go to the former, and my commiserations to the latter. All the candidates on the shortlist – Dora Dixon-Fyle, Naz Sarkar and Cathy Ashley were the others – would make good MPs in their different ways, and whatever they choose to do in the future they can be proud that they made it as far as the shortlist and to a hustings which was perhaps the biggest CLP meeting Streatham has seen, certainly in my time as a member here.

I didn’t do as well as I had hoped, though I don’t regret putting my name forward. My affection for Streatham is such that I would have regretted not having done so. I had a lot of fun meeting members who, for whatever reason, don’t generally come to party meetings or come out campaigning and explaining to them what I believe in.

I learned a lot, both about the process and about the chemistry of local politics. I ended the process as an ordinary voting member, with a lot of sympathy for the remaining candidates, as well as sympathy for the members, who had been blitzed with paper, as well as phones and doorbells ringing at awkward moments. It’s a relief that it’s over, and we can now concentrate on working with Chuka to defend Streatham for Labour.

If I have a personal highlight, it was being given a teapot by an elderly couple, a kind gift which I will keep as an unusual memento. We had a long chat as I sat in an armchair with their one-eyed cat settled in my lap, and I remember thinking ‘this is the Labour Party I believe in, good, honest people, sharing time, experience, hopes, views and values.’