First Labour leadership regional hustings tonight

WELSH Labour is this evening holding the first of the five official party hustings for its new leader. Labour members from across the North Wales region will meet from 6.45 at The Little Theatre Rhyl in order to take their opportunity to question the three candidates about their campaign platforms.

There will of course be other hustings events held around the country by other interested organisations, but these are the party sanctioned ones and therefore take on a particular importance. The other four regional hustings are being held over the next fortnight or so:

The regional hustings have already been the subject of some controversy even before they have begun. The Western Mail reported some weeks ago that some Labour members were unhappy that all questions to candidates at the events would be pre-screened. When we reported on this on the Hearth we undertook to ascertain to what extent this was a real issue. Having spoken to key people on all three campaigns, my understanding is that pre-screening is not a problem to them. It might be an issue for some party members, but for those around the candidates it does not figure as a matter of concern. Indeed, as has been pointed out to me by several people, pre-screening is actually helpful since it prevents questions being posed that are overtly favourable to a single candidate, libellous, over technical or basically unfair. It is an argument that has certainly persuaded me that there was nothing significant in the original report.

Best of luck to all candidates this evening. As ever on WalesHome.org, we’d be interested in people’s assessments of how they performed.