While the Tories finally selected their Hartlepool candidate on Friday night, the weekend selections by smaller parties were much more interesting. The separatist Northern Independence Party have announced former Corbynite MP Thelma Walker – in parliament from 2017 to 2019 and who quit Labour last year over Starmer’s suspension of Corbyn – will be their candidate. During her brief political career she was McDonnell’s PPS, and backed ‘second referendum’ and ‘customs union’ during parliament’s indicative votes. Just the sort of person to whom Hartlepool is sure to warm…

The not-to-be-confused regionalist Northern Party has also quietly selected a former Labour MP: Hilton Dawson, member of parliament for Lancaster & Wyre from 1997 to 2005. While Dawson wasn’t voted out in 2005, his party’s platform is primarily trying to resurrect Prescott’s regional assemblies; plans which were scrapped after the North East comprehensively voted them down in 2004 (in what was Dominic Cummings’ first referendum success). Given Labour selecting former Labour MP Paul Williams too, Hartlepool is shaping up to be a parade of left-wing MPs the region’s already rejected…