As Guido reported yesterday there is open revolt at Harman and Watson’s plans to stitch up the Labour Birmingham Mayoral race as exposed by Patrick Wintour. It was dismissed as stirring but now one of the candidates, Gisela Stuart, has broken cover in the Times:

“The whole point of the mayors was to devolve power and increase democratic participation, but the Labour Party’s response is as an old-fashioned, backward-looking party. The party machinery has to show some faith in the good judgment of voters and you cannot do that by drawing up rules which narrow down the contest.”

You read it here first…

UPDATE:

A senior Labour source gets in touch to say that it "it's inconceivable that MPs will be banned from fighting in Mayoral elections."

— Harry Cole (@MrHarryCole) April 11, 2012