Campbell: I won’t be Labour's Burnley candidate (From Burnley and Pendle Citizen)

Campbell: I won’t be Labour's Burnley candidate

2:06pm Thursday 2nd July 2009

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By Chris Hopper »

FORMER Downing Street spin doctor Alastair Campbell has ruled himself out of the running to be Burnley’s next MP.

But a former senior councillor with more than 30 years’ experience in politics, has thrown his hat into the ring – less than a month after losing his seat at County Hall.

Rumours had been circulating in the town that Clarets fan Mr Campbell was prepared to stand as Labour’s candidate at the next General Election after beleaguered Kitty Ussher announced last month she was stepping down.

However, Mr Campbell told the Lancashire Telegraph yesterday: “Lots of people have asked me about this, but I have always said that after leaving Downing Street in 2003, I am not going back into politics.

“Nobody has ever come to me formally about it but, at the end of the day, it’s a decision you have to make for yourself because I have got a different life now.

"I am still committed to Labour and I will always help out, but not as a candidate.”

Mr Campbell, 52, has been out of front-line politics since quitting in 2003 as Tony Blair’s head of communications, a position he held for nine years.

But since then, the devoted Burnley FC supporter has advised Gordon Brown and worked for the party in other roles, sparking suggestions he may stand as an MP in East Lancashire.

Meanwhile, former Labour Burnley Central West county councillor Tony Martin yesterday signalled he wants to stand at the next General Election, due to be held before next June.

Mr Martin served as a member of Lancashire County Council’s cabinet from 2001 until last month, when he, along with the party’s other five county members in Burnley and Padiham, was unseated in the election.

Labour’s National Executive Committee is due to decide on Tuesday whether an all-woman shortlist will again be imposed on Burnley, as was the case in 2005.

Mr Martin, a Labour Party member since 1976, said: “If it is an open shortlist, I will put my name forward.

“It will be a very tight election, but I have got lots and lots of experience.”

Last month, Ms Ussher announced she was standing down at the next election after it was revealed she had avoided capital gains tax by switching her second home between Burnley and London.

Burnley Council leader Gordon Birtwistle has already announced he will stand as the Liberal Democrats’ parliamentary candidate next year.

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