LABOUR members will soon vote on whether to try and gag a former MP for speaking out about the party’s now-rejected parliamentary candidate for the city.

Worcester Constituency Labour Party (CLP) will vote on whether to ‘silence’ Mike Foster, Labour’s first MP for the city, and Daniel Walton, who previously stood for election in West Worcestershire, at a meeting in the Guildhall on May 14.

If the motion succeeds, the CLP will ask senior Labour figures to tell the pair to stop talking to the media about local party issues.

The politicians are in hot water because of their comments about Labour’s controversial nominee, Mandy Richards, who was labelled a ‘fantasist’ due to ‘false and vexatious’ court claims.

Mr Foster said: “Last week, Labour lost a safe seat and there was a swing away from us to the Tories.

“This should be a cause for concern but the loony left aren’t really interested it seems, compared with trying to bully centrist voices into silence.

“Just as in the 1980s, a few hard-core left wingers are trying to sow seeds of dissent because they cannot face up to the reality that electoral success failed to come Labour’s way.”

He said he was surprised and disappointed about the move to ‘silence moderate voices’ in the party. Mr Walton added that he felt frustrated by the vote.

He said: “The public deserve open politics and comments from people when things don’t run smoothly, as in the case with the election of Mandy Richards, for which the local party were not at fault - at all.

“We’ve had a disappointing result in Worcester last week. Some great candidates didn’t win seats they expected and we’ve lost a seat we never expected to lose.

“The clique who are pushing this ridiculous motion ought to be worrying about how the party gets back control of the city council and how we win the next general election rather than trying to stifle opinion and cause internal fights.”

Mr Walton added the ‘clique’ behind the vote were determined to run the party into the ground by endlessly attacking other members.

Ian Craigan, chairman of Worcester Constituency Labour Party, said it was not a motion to ‘silence’ the pair.

He added: “We can’t do that, they are not members of the CLP.”

Mr Craigan said some members think Mr Foster and Mr Walton made unhelpful public statements during the Mandy Richards affair, when members were asked to offer no comment.