Let's be fair, Corbyn did parachute candidates himself; Claudia Webb, certainly won't have been the parliamentary candidate for Keith Vaz's old seat in Leicester, in an area, predominantly Asian. Oona King back in '97 also does come to mind, when she got selected for Bethnal Green.

Ed Miliband and Balls were parachuted candidates too, let's not forget. Every leader, consolidating power has sought to use the NEC to advance its causes. make no mistakes there.

The question in the aftermath of the hartlepool loss is whether to go back to the left wing policies or carry on with Starmer's agenda? Right now, I have no answers