Today's Labour Update on Labour Politics from The Waugh Zone Is Titled OLDHAM WRIT LARGE

* Paul WAUGH

by Paul WAUGH | Politics

Given voters’ reluctance to wander out on cold dark nights, we don’t often do elections in December in the UK (though we had a general election in December 1910, you can have that fun fact for free). But I’m reliably informed that Labour will today formally move the writ for the Oldham West and Royton by-election and it will be held on Thursday December 3rd.

Labour HQ feels the need, the need for speed and you can see why. There’s a race against time to ensure that UKIP, who came second in this safe seat in May, can’t pile in enough bodies and resources to steal it from under their noses. Labour came within a whisker of losing nearby Heywood and Middleton, and that was in October, not the turnout-depressing December.

Today Labour’s NEC by-elections sub committee interviews the candidates to whittle them down to a shortlist for the local party. Jim McMahon, the leader of Oldham Council, is undeniably the front-runner. Other current and former councillors Abdul Jabbar and Mohammed Azam are also on the long list, as well as ex MP Chris Williamson, Jane East, Sophie Taylor and Sabina Kahn.

The by-elections committee is made up of Keith Vaz, Ellie Reeves and Unite’s Jennie Formby. But the Telegraph reports that Kate Godfrey - who has attacked the ‘morally wrong’ appointment of Seumas Milne - has been left off the list. 

Bonfire night is when the final Labour selection takes place and whoever is chosen will face fireworks. Nigel Farage hasn’t been slow to make plain UKIP’s main by-election attack: on Jeremy Corbyn’s patriotism. He told Marr yesterday: “This is the first test of Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership on a national stage and I think there is a genuine question of: is he patriotic?”

McMahon (who I remember giving an impressive speech to Progress at Labour conference two years ago) wouldn’t have any trouble on the patriotism front, given his centrist views. 

But Michael Fallon has already seized on the Scottish Labour conference vote yesterday to ditch Trident. The vote - greeted by a thumbs up from Corbyn, and which featured Scottish Unite breaking with its UK union line on protecting defence jobs - was a stark example of the difficulties Labour faces in keeping together its coalition of Scottish and English interests, let alone keeping together the Shadow Cabinet.

With Remembrance Sunday coming up, the Sunday Times yesterday quoted an old Morning Star column from Corbyn lamenting the cost of marking the 100th anniversary of the First World War. Expect much, much more of this in Oldham as Labour's new left direction becomes an issue writ large

* Paul Waugh is the Executive Editor, Politics, HuffPost UK.