All-black shortlist for Boateng's seat

Labour has drawn up an allblack shortlist for the key seat of Brent South.

The move follows complaints about the under-representation of black and ethnic minority MPs in Westminster.

The party's National Executive Committee has selected four candidates to contest the right to succeed Paul Boateng in the north London constituency.

Mr Boateng, Chief Secretary to the Treasury, is to become British High Commissioner to South Africa.

The NEC list is headed by Razi Rahman, Tony Blair's deputy political secretary, regarded as one of the rising stars of the Labour Party.

He will do battle with Dawn Butler, a GMB policy officer, Navin Shah, leader of Harrow council, and Mary Foulkes, an activist from Southwark.

The decision to impose an all-black and Asian shortlist follows criticism that Labour failed to select a black or Asian candidate for West Ham, one of the most ethnically diverse seats in Britain.

An all-women shortlist has been drawn up for the Labour marginal of Hammersmith and Fulham, where MP Iain Coleman is standing down.