Labour candidates may fight elections in Ulster
LABOUR candidates may stand in next year's council elections - and perhaps even the assembly election, the party's local secretary has said.
The news emerged yesterday as shadow health secretary Andy Burnham made history by becoming the first Labour leadership hopeful to visit Northern Ireland in his campaign to succeed Gordon Brown in September.
Expanding on his contribution to the News Letter's Union 2021 series yesterday, Mr Burnham confirmed that if he is leader he will delegate to the party's members in Northern Ireland the decision on whether to stand in elections here.
Attempting to woo local Labour members and almost 40,000 Ulster trade unionists eligible to vote in the leadership contest, the former health secretary promised to let a "bottom up" party decide locally whether to stand for election.
Asked why he was supporting the move, given the party's long-standing opposition to even allowing Northern Ireland residents to join until recent years, Mr Burnham said: "I think it's about people's choice and their right to be democratically enfranchised.
"We would always want the Labour Party to be sensitive to the political realities on the ground in Northern Ireland," he said, adding that Labour had to be "sensitive" about its sister party, the SDLP.
He added: "I say this very clearly, I will not be a Labour leader who tries to dictate to members anywhere...it (whether to run) will be a decision for the chair and secretary of the Northern Ireland Labour Party."
Queen's University academic Boyd Black, the most senior Labour figure in the province, said: "We have our eyes on local government elections next year as a possible starting point.
"As an organisation we are very keen to get into the business of contesting elections.
"We don't underestimate how difficult it's going to be and obviously there is the chance, if we do put our foot in the water, we can get trounced but my feeling is that there is growing body of opinion that does want to move away from the old arguments we've had for the last 20, 30 years and is fed up with a lot of argy-bargy that is going on, and is modern, secular and anti-sectarian."
He added: "There is a swathe in Northern Ireland that has actually been suppressed in my view by the Labour Party over decades because it has prevented the emergence of Labour Party politics in Northern Ireland."
Mr Burnham – who was nominated by the party in Northern Ireland and a BBC opinion poll put on about 12 per cent support, well behind leading contender David Miliband on 37 per cent and Ed Miliband on 29 per cent – said he feared that Labour had become "dangerously disconnected from ordinary working people".
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Weather for Belfast
Monday 13 February 2012
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Light rain
Temperature: 4 C to 9 C
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