Guido’s revelation that the Hartlepool by-election candidate, Dr. Paul Williams, had backed cuts to local hospital services in a 2013 in a report which he co-authored, recommending critical care be removed from Hartlepool Hospital has had an impact. Labour are now attempting damage control – though not by actually denying it. In an open letter to Conservative Party co-chair Amanda Milling, Angela Rayner has instead attacked the credibility of Hartlepool TV, a site that lifted and repackaged our initial scoop, by claiming it’s run by “US-based conspiracy theorists“. Not the best defence…

A few problems for Angela here: firstly, Hartlepool TV didn’t break the story, Guido did. Whatever tinfoil hat nonsense comes out of Hartlepool TV is irrelevant. The substance of the story is true.

Back in 2019, not only did Labour share content from Hartlepool TV on their social media, Labour’s then-MP candidate Mike Hill often appeared in interviews on the same channel. Secondly, Labour didn’t seem to have much of a problem with Hartlepool TV until Angela wrote her letter. They were happy with Hartlepool TV when it gave them an uncritical platform…

Last night Peter Mandelson gave an interview to the Huffington Post in which he joked about the infamous (albeit untrue) story of his mistaking mushy peas for guacamole at a fish and chip shop. He claims he’s “now a fully reconverted mushy pea man”. If voters thought Mandelson was too posh for Hartlepool, they’d better brace themselves…

Among the hundreds of tweets deleted by Labour’s Hartlepool candidate last month, one included Paul Williams bragging of his time on holiday in Paris, enjoying too much food and wine, and – interestingly for a Labour candidate – foie gras. Foie gras is the new guacamole…

This lifestyle is hardly surprising for an affluent, middle-class Europhile like Dr Paul, though Guido imagines it’ll hardly endear him to Hartlepool’s voters. Labour’s 2019 manifesto called for a banning of foie gras imports; soon Paris city breaks may be the only way Dr Paul gets to enjoy his delicious decadent food preferences…

Last week Labour’s Hartlepool candidate Dr Paul Williams invited Jonathan Ashworth up to complain about a lack of hip operations in the town. While Williams accurately says this is the result of cuts, he failed to tell Ashworth who was responsible for them: Paul Williams himself. In 2013 Dr Williams was a commissioner and co-author of the report that decided services – including critical care – be removed from Hartlepool Hospital. A recommendation that was adopted in full…

Not satisfied with closing down the hospital’s critical care unit, Williams also recommended slashing the number of planned operations, including hip replacements, despite admitting his proposals would “worry” local people:

Following the revelation, Tory chair Amanda Milling has branded Dr Paul a “hospital hypocrite”, pointing out his “nerve to bring Labour front benchers up to Hartlepool complaining about a lack of hip replacements, when he was responsible for stopping them in the first place.” This is quite a considerable own goal, even by recent Labour standards…

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…

A fascinating new MRP poll released by The Times this morning shows Hartlepool to be on much more of a knife-edge than many commentators first thought. As could have been predicted, the Reform/Brexit Party’s polling has tumbled by 17 points since 2019, with the Tories now confirmed as being the main benefactors at this point; up by 7% to 36%, just three points behind Labour’s Dr Paul Williams. Will this make Tice reconsider standing in the by-election? It certainly undermines his suggestion the Tories should stand aside and let him take the fight to Labour…

A Labour councillor has been ‘thrown out’ of the party after protesting the single name stitch up shortlist that installed ex-MP Paul Williams as the party’s candidate. The party itself had admitted in a leaked internal memo that Paul Williams – who had been standing to become Police and Crime Commissioner, and was previously an MP for Stockton South isn’t “quite as well informed as we’d like them to be re the town and our electorate”. Saltburn Councillor Craig Hannaway objected to the stitch up and says he has been thrown out as a result.

Councillor Craig Hannaway has told TeessideLive that tried to apply to be Labour’s candidate in Hartlepool as soon as the incumbent MP resigned, but “realised there wasn’t anything to apply for because they had already decided on Paul Williams”. Labour aren’t handling this well…