Bevanites and the Ballot
Whether the result of the first ballot for membership of the Labour Parliamentary Party is to be regarded as satisfactory' or unsatisfactory depends on the point of view. Mr. Beval can hardly be expected to hail it with enthusiasm. He and eight of his followers put up as candidates. None of them Is in III first six, all of whom obtained over 50 per cent. of votes, and only three, Mr. Bevan himself, Mr. Harold Wilson and Ml Bing, qualified for the second round, in which the twelve nets in order to the already elected six will be balloted on for tlt six remaining places. Mr. Bevan therefore has still a chan of being elected, though the fact that so prominent a mem of the 1945 Government failed to secure a place in the first sit is something of a set-back for him. There will no doubt l some complaint about the new regulations for the ballot. T110 provided that every member voting must cast all his tv, votes. (to prevent supporters of a particular panel of candidate voting for them only and thereby giving them an advantage and that only those securing over 50 per cent. of votes of the first ballot should be declared elected forthwith, a secor0 ballot being taken for any places remaining—which in this case happen to be six. Mr. Bevan and his friends may de nounce this procedure as a manoeuvre. The answer no dota is that it was adopted to frustrate a suspected manoeuvre Into that argument no one outside the Labour Party will feel tempted to intrude.
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