AN EXPLOSIVE row has blown up after Airdrie Labour Party members were ordered to draw up an all-female shortlist of candidates for MP John Reid’s seat, the Advertiser can exclusively reveal.

The Airdrie & Shotts Labour constituency party have been told by Labour party chiefs to throw any applications for men “into the bucket.”

Rebelling branch members are organising a petition of protest against the move and are urging their 200 members to sign it.

Peter Sullivan, branch secretary and a former Airdrie councillor, told the Advertiser: “We are very disappointed and angry with the national executive.

“We are still of the belief that an open leet is the way forward to allow the best person, male or female, to fight the seat.

“We have a petition which will be sent to all party members in the constituency against the enforcement of an all-woman short leet. We feel we are being dictated to and this is not correct.”

Officials from the Labour Party’s national executive visited branch members to tell them to draw up the women-only list.

A letter will now go out to all affiliated bodies for candidates and if any males apply for the seat – to be vacated by Mr Reid at the next general election – their application is to be discarded.

The Labour Party say that there is a lack of female MPs in Scotland and they want to redress the balance.

And there is nothing illegal in the move.

Airdrie councillor Jim Logue is the branch’s preferred candidate.

He told the Advertiser: “I am disappointed at the national executive’s decision and look forward to seeing future developments.”

A source said: “There is a lot of anger over this and feelings are running high. There could be a potential backlash.

“But if the branch does not toe the line, the national executive has the power to close it.”

The list of candidates will be whittled down to a short leet of six.

A spokesperson for Scottish Labour said: “The huge lack of talented and experienced women in the House of Commons is a matter of urgent concern for Labour.

“Labour’s executive committee decides when a seat is made an all-woman shortlist, implemented after consultation with the local party, and it is then up to the local party to shortlist potential candidates and select the person who will fight the seat for Labour.

“We expect that local members will have selected a candidate well before the summer.”

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