'Evidence of misbehaviour' in Falkirk
Labour's Tom Watson has resigned from his shadow cabinet role as the party's general election co-ordinator.
The West Bromwich East MP has been embroiled in a row about candidate selection in Falkirk.
The disagreement broke out over the seat being vacated by Labour's Eric Joyce. The Unite union has been accused of hijacking the process to select a new candidate to replace him, and Mr Watson's office manager was the union's preferred candidate.
Angela Eagle, shadow leader of the House, stated the party "will not be co-operating with an inquiry", proposed by Len McCluskey, general secretary of Unite, into the row at Falkirk.
She said: "In this particular example in Falkirk, we have sufficient evidence of misbehaviour and abuse of membership for us to proceed in the way we have. It's up to the leader of the Labour party, not anyone else, to decide to take the action that we've taken to ensure our rules are followed.
"People can have an opinion about what action to take, but the leader and the general secretary of our party have made these decisions. The NEC will be looking at this too. Outside of that it's nobody's duty but our to deal with this issue."
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4's Today programme on Friday 5 July 2013.
05 Jul 2013
- From the section UK Politics