A FORMER Labour Councillor, who quit in protest at racist bullying, has claimed black members of the party were barred from a crucial meeting to draw up a shortlist to replace her, favouring a white man.

Last week the candidate who was picked for Labour crashed to a humiliating council byelection defeat as Sir Kier Starmer’s party managed to lose the safe seat in Manchester.

Marcia Hutchinson, who represented Ancoats and Beswick, resigned from the town hall after just six months saying she was subjected to racism and bullying by colleagues in the Labour group. 

Liberal Democrat Alan Good was elected last week, overturning a previously rock-solid Labour majority. Ms Hutchinson had previously won the seat with 57% of the vote. Mr Good defeated Labour’s Gareth Worthington by 320 votes. 

Ms Hutchinson alleges that there were “mammoth rule-breaking efforts” to ensure that Mr Worthington would be chosen over two black front-runners.

“The meeting at which the decision was made as to who was on the shortlist, there were four people supporting a white guy and eleven people supporting the black candidate,” she told The Voice.

“Despite that, four of the black people were excluded on the grounds that they hadn’t paid their memberships up to date, which was not true. 

“And two of the white people who had not paid their memberships up to date were allowed into the meeting and told by the chair, ‘We’ve seen bank statements. We know you’re up to date.’”

Irene Robinson, the Chair of Ancoats and Beswick Labour Branch, oversaw the meeting to decide who was shortlisted which took place via Zoom on 13th December last year. 

The Branch Secretary, Lina Jfairi, took the final decision as to who was admitted to the all-important shortlisting meeting.

“Four black people who were in the Zoom waiting room were refused entry. When I queried this at the meeting, Councillor Paul Andrews explained that it was because they had not joined by the cut-off date,” said Ms Hutchinson. 

“But I later found out that two of them, Sharlene Small and ‘IO’ had joined before the freeze date and had paid their memberships up to date. 

“The system may have been showing arrears but unlike their white counterparts they were not given the opportunity to prove that they had paid.”

Sharlene Small, one of the black party members blocked from the meeting, told The Voice that this incident has dampened her faith as a life-long Labour supporter. 

“I arrived early for the meeting at 6:45 p.m. and stayed in the Zoom waiting room until the meeting was over. 

“While I was waiting to get into the meeting nobody spoke to me. I was simply left in the waiting room. It is simply not true that I was given the opportunity to prove that my membership subscriptions were paid up,” she said.

“It was afterwards that I found out that it was mostly just the black people that weren’t allowed in the meeting. You try to be open minded, because I’ve been with Labour for a long time, it’s a family thing but all this has happened – what else am I going to think?”

“The guy was [selected], [Gareth Worthington], he shouldn’t have been voted in anyway. If it was done fairly, I would be happy for him. It’s not about black or white.”

She added: “It’s difficult because I run a youth group and I’m trying to encourage them to get involved with [the Labour Party] and make it out that it’s equal and they shouldn’t worry about their colour. And then this happens to people like myself, it’s like egg in my face when I’m trying to make a change.”

Two black candidates, Thirza Asanga Rae and Kemoy Walker, had eleven supporters, but only seven of those were allowed into the meeting. Mr Worthington had six supporters and all six were allowed into the meeting while the meeting voted for a shortlist of two. 

It is alleged that if all those present and eligible had been allowed to choose the shortlisted candidates by a show of hands, Mr Walker and Ms Asanga Rae would have been shortlisted due to having the majority vote.

Many of those excluded from the meeting claim their vote would have gone to Mr Walker.

Ms Hutchinson went on to claim that under Manchester Labour’s current rules, when a female councillor steps down it sparks an automatic all-women shortlist. 

However, following her resignation it is alleged that this was converted to an open shortlist in which male candidates were entitled to be shortlisted with no debate or vote on opening the shortlist, resulting in Mr Worthington being selected within this round.

The former councillor is now calling for a full investigation into the decision to allow an open shortlist, why the exclusion of black branch members went ahead and Mr Worthington being able to obtain enough votes. 

Ms Hutchinson, who was awarded an MBE in 2010 for services to cultural diversity, believes the behaviour of members in the group is racist and stems from her work as leader of The Pipeline Project before her resignation last year. 

Black people remain underrepresented as councillors on Manchester City Council despite making up 12% of the population, but account for less than 5% of councillors.

It’s a stark disparity that Ms Hutchinson aims to address in the aftermath of the shock by-election. 

“The project is to increase the number of Labour and black councillors in Manchester. 

“I have been running the project for four years and I train, mentor and support black people on a local level. 

So, I’ve got a very sort of detailed level of each of the areas who’s likely to get selected for and what people need to do. 

“And we’ve been quite successful in what we do and I think that’s the reason I was targeted [through racism and bullying] because they really don’t want any more black councillors.”

In response to the Lib Dem’s victory over Labour, Ms Hutchinson, tweeted: “Their racism triggers a landslide defeat. Council Leader has nerve to call for an end to ‘mudslinging’. They’re fighting like rats in a sack trying to shift the blame. Look in a mirror guys, this was entirely self-inflicted.

The Voice has contacted the Labour Party for comment.