Four contenders to succeed Bradshaw

And one of them is from the city!

Ben Bradshaw’s successor as Exeter’s Labour candidate at the next general election will be chosen this weekend.

Mr Bradshaw, who has represented the city since 1997, announced in February that he will not be seeking re-election when the UK chooses its next government.

Now local party members will vote from a shortlist of four candidates following a meeting this Saturday [16 July].

The quartet includes two councillors from in or around London – Natasa Pantelic (Slough) and Steve Race (Hackney) – but none of Exeter City Council’s 25 Labour members.

Helen Dallimore, a former employment lawyer, is the only hopeful who lives in Exeter, while Neil Guild is a Taunton-based former soldier turned civil engineer and union rep.

Significantly, Mr Bradshaw has backed his former assistant Mr Race – who has also worked in public relations – to be his replacement, saying he would be a “powerful advocate for Exeter.”

Mr Race previously stood for the party in East Devon at the 2015 general election, finishing in fourth – Labour’s lowest position since the seat was established in the same year Mr Bradshaw became an MP.

Diversity and inclusion trainer Ms Dallimore is the only of the four not to have previously contested a parliamentary election for the party, though she stood unsuccessfully as a Devon County Council candidate in Wearside and Topsham in 2021.

Senior parliamentary assistant and former teacher Ms Pantelic came fourth at the 2021 Chesham & Amersham by-election and with just 1.6 per cent of the vote lost her deposit.

Mr Guild finished fourth for Labour in Taunton Deane in the 2015 general election, gaining a nine per cent share of the vote.

The shortlist was whittled down from a longlist of six chosen by a panel of Labour National Executive Committee (NEC) and South West Regional Executive Committee members.

Exeter’s Labour Party will hold its selection meeting at the Methodist Church on Sidwell Street.