Labour cancels controversial poll
Saturday, 18 April 2009 12:00 AM
The Labour Party has called off today's candidate selection vote for a south-east London seat after finding a ballot box had apparently been tampered with.
The process to replace sitting MP John Austin has already attracted controversy, with complaints made about the campaign tactics of the daughter of one of Tony Blair's allies.
Georgia Gould, the 22-year-old daughter of Philip Gould, is shortlisted along with seven other women to represent the party in Erith and Thamesmead.
Her campaign team have been accused of distributing postal vote forms with voters' names, addresses and telephone numbers filled out.
A Labour Party spokesperson said last night: "At 6.45pm this evening it was discovered that the seal on a ballot box containing previously received ballot papers for the selection of Labour's parliamentary candidate for Erith and Thamesmead was broken.
"In order to maintain the integrity of the process, tomorrow's hustings meeting has been immediately postponed and a new date will be fixed."
An investigation has been launched into the interference with the ballot box, which was being stored at the headquarters of the London regional Labour party.
The party also said the complaint over postal ballots would be taken very seriously but initial queries suggested the total number of postal votes did not look to be "unduly high".
Georgia Gould's father was an important figure in reshaping the party along with Lord Mandelson. There has been no suggestion that Ms Gould is involved in any vote-interference.
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