A SUCCESSOR to Alan Milburn as Darlington’s Labour parliamentary candidate could take up to four months to find.

Discussions have yet to start to find someone to replace Mr Milburn, who announced his decision to stand down on Saturday.

Neil Fleming, Labour party spokesman for the North, said the process would involve several steps.

Labour’s National Executive Committee (NEC) will consult with party members in Darlington to decide on the format of the shortlist, which could either be open or all-female.

The NEC will make the final decision on the format at one of its meetings, either in July or September.

In Darlington, the executive committee of the constituency party will draw up a longlist and then a shortlist. All local party members will vote on the new candidate using a preferential proportional representation system.

Mr Fleming said the whole process could take between 12 and 16 weeks.

He added: “The NEC take into account the feelings of the local party, but has also other factors to look at, including the number of women MPs in the region.”

Andy Scott, secretary of the party in Darlington, hoped they could announce a candidate five weeks after receiving a decision from the NEC.

He added: “The party would prefer to do it all as soon as possible.

There isn’t an apparent candidate yet, but it is very early days.

“It is always a preference that a candidate is local.”

Neil Foster, who stood against William Hague in the 2005 election in Richmond, is the only person so far to throw his name into the ring.

However, the candidates are expected to include local borough councillors.

They could include: Nick Wallis, who stood as an MEP earlier this month, but has said it is too early to comment; Cyndi Hughes, who is secretary to her husband, Stephen Hughes MEP, but said she had not given it any thought yet; Jenny Chapman, Mr Milburn’s former assistant; and Lee Vasey, who applied for the Washington and Sunderland West seat.

Simon Henig, leader of Durham County Council, who was a candidate for Tony Blair’s Sedgefield vacancy, has not ruled himself out, but said: “There are some strong local candidates who I wouldn’t stand against.”

Other frontrunners could include Fay Tinnion, formerly from the North-East who stood as an MEP in the region, and Pat Mc- Court, who reached the Sedgefield shortlist.

Mr Milburn has been Darlington MP since 1992. Labour has held the seat for all but nine years since 1964.

Edward Legard will be the Conservative candidate, Mike Barker will stand for the Liberal Democrats and Charlotte Bull for the UK Independence Party.