A veteran Labour peer yesterday wrote a letter of support to the Socialist Alliance candidate in St Helens South for opposing the "self-serving defector from the Tory Party", Mr Shaun Woodward.
Lord Stoddart of Swindon told Mr Neil Thompson: "You and other members of the Labour Party are entitled to feel outraged and aggrieved at the last-minute parachuting in of Mr Woodward as the official Labour candidate for St Helens South. It is an insult to those who have worked hard for the party on a voluntary basis over many years."