Last Thursday, Crawley Constituency Labour Party held an All-Member Meeting to decide whether the local party wanted to run an All-Women Shortlist to select its Parliamentary Candidate for the next General Election. While the final vote was decisively one-sided, it was the sort of debate which made you proud to feel part of a democratic political party.

Unlike many of the other political parties, Labour’s internal decision-making retains a high level of democratic member input–it’s worth reminding ourselves not even Tory Party members had the chance to vote for Theresa May as Prime Minister, the debate was comradely, filled with facts and figures and avoided any of the stereotypical arguments which are unfairly raised in discussing this subject. The party’s final vote reflected the honest views of the membership on what, given the local party and constituency’s current political circumstances, would be best placed to not only deliver a Labour MP but a Member of Parliament who would do Crawley proud.