Kilfoyle confirms he’s going for police job

The former Labour minister Peter Kilfoyle has confirmed to me that he has applied for the Labour nomination for November’s election for post of police and crime commissioner for Merseyside. Kilfoyle stood down as MP for Liverpool Walton at the last election after 19 years as an MP.

The other contender for the Labour nomination is another former minister who stood down in 2010 – Jane Kennedy, who held offices in several government departments in the Blair and Brown years, including the Treasury and Northern Ireland. She served for 18 years as MP for Liverpool Wavertree.

On the basis of votes cast at the 2010 election, Labour is almost certain to win the Merseyside election.

In the 1980s, both Kilfoyle and Kennedy were among the few Liverpool politicians publicly to oppose the Trotskyist Militant Tendency.