following criticism of labour candidates for previous byelections, the party had set up a panel of five senior members to draw up shortlist of approved candidates, from which the local constituency labour party would make the final selection. deputy leader roy hattersley was in charge of the process. a shortlist was drawn up during january, with some concerns being reported about whether the candidate from the 1987 election, crispin st hill, would be on it. st hill was a black community worker from brent and previous byelections had seen the party resist selecting black candidates for byelections. he did secure a place on the shortlist but the local party selected sylvia heal, who had made a prominent speech at the 1989 party conference supporting the leadership's change of policy on nuclear disarmament from unilateral disarmament to a multilateralist approach. heal was a social worker and magistrate from egham, surrey, who had not previously fought an election.