Conspiracy theorists have been having a field day following Labour's decision to select Shabana Mahmood as the party's candidate to stand in place of Clare Short in Ladywood at the next General Election, rather than city councillor Yvonne Mosquito.
In many ways officials organising the selection process were on a hiding to nothing. If they failed to take special precautions to make sure the contest was above board, they would have been criticised. But because they did take precautions, they are criticised even more.
Coun Mosquito, a black Christian in a constituency with the second highest proportion of African Caribbean voters anywhere in the country, was an early favourite to win the nomination, her case strengthened by the total absence of black women MPs outside of London.
Ms Mahmood, a young Asian Muslim barrister, presented equally attractive credentials and, if she wins the seat, will become one of the country's first female Muslim MPs.
In the weeks and days running up to the selection, a number of odd events happened which have since been seized upon by Coun Mosquito's supporters as evidence of foul play. She was dumped by her Labour council colleagues, without reason or explanation, from the West Midlands Police Authority where she held the high-profile position of vice-chairman. That was followed by, it is alleged, confusion over who could and could not vote at the selection meeting and several decisions to put back the date by which postal votes had to be received.
It is highly unlikely that claims of foul play will ever be substantiated. But Labour must know it has a lot of work to do now to bring the African Caribbean community and the black Christian churches of Ladywood back on board if Ms Mahmood is to be embraced as the party's official candidate.
