KEY Labour figures called on the party this week to select its candidate for a safe north London seat from an all-black shortlist for the first time.

Labour’s national executive committee (NEC) will shortly draw up a list of potential candidates to replace retiring MP Andy Love, who has represented Edmonton since 1997.

Frontrunners in the seat are thought to include veteran former councillor Kingsley Abrams and controversial former NEC member and Israel lobbyist Luke Akehurst.

Current NEC member Kate Osamor, party fundraiser Ibrahim Dogus and recent Euro MP candidate Ivana Bartoletti are also in the frame.

Others tipped to run are London Assembly member Joanne McCartney, Haringey councillor Joseph Ejiofor and Enfield councillors Rohini Simbodyal and Doug Taylor.

But Black Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) Labour chairman Kamaljeet Jandu and vice-chairwoman June Nelson called on the NEC to exclude white candidates from the process.

Labour has only 16 ethnic minority MPs — just six per cent of the party’s total. At the last census, the Edmonton constituency recorded 73 per cent of its population as non-white.

In a letter seen by the Morning Star, Mr Jandu and Ms Nelson urged the Edmonton constituency Labour party to join the calls for an all-minority shortlist.

“We believe that the members of Edmonton CLP can take one small step to address the ethnic imbalance through supporting our request to Labour’s national executive committee to select an all-BAME shortlist for your members to choose a prospective parliamentary candidate from,” they wrote.

Mr Jandu and Ms Nelson said the party had previously drawn up an all-minority shortlist for the Brent South selection in 2005.

The call for an all-black shortlist was supported by grassroots Labour blog Left Futures.

“Labour has an opportunity to make sure its candidate reflects [the constituency’s] diversity,” editor Jon Lansman said.

“Now is surely a time when the importance of addressing the under-representation of Britain’s BAME communities should take priority over the careers of full-time politicians and lobbyists, however talented they may be.”

Party members will vote on short-listed candidates at a hustings meeting. The NEC will also draw up a shortlist for the Merseyside constituency of St Helens North, where sitting MP Dave Watts is also retiring.