THE next Labour candidate to become Blaenau Gwent's MP will be a woman, the party's Welsh executive decided yesterday.

The decision to draw up an all-women shortlist - in a bid to increase the number of women in Parliament - has prompted fury from the constituency's current MP Llew Smith, who will step down at the next general election.

Mr Smith has accused party bosses of destroying the legacy of the late, great Aneurin Bevan and former Labour leader Michael Foot.

And now the local party in the constituency with the UK's largest majority is beginning a national campaign against closed shortlists.

Mr Smith said: "I am totally ashamed to see this decision taken by the bureaucrats who now run the Labour party. They are trying to destroy the proud legacy of our former MPs Nye Bevan and Michael Foot.

"They are not trying to promote equality, they're trying to impose their candidate. For these people politics is a career, but for committed members it is a philosophy about creating a fairer society and taking their right to choose who represents them is not going to achieve that."

Blaenau Gwent's constituency Labour Party secretary Dai Davies told the Argus: "Everybody in the Labour party in Blaenau Gwent is extremely disappointed. It will be hugely damaging to the party, not just in this area, but all over the country. All we have asked for all along is for the right to pick our own candidates according to their ability not according to gender or ethnicity.

"Blaenau Gwent has always chosen excellent candidates, including a Labour party leader and the founder of the NHS Nye Bevan. We will now officially appeal the decision of the executive and begin organising a national campaign against closed lists." There will also be an all-female shortlist for Swansea East.

Many within the party believe all-women lists are the only way to redress the gender imbalance in Westminster.

They have been used in some constituencies in National Assembly elections. The Assembly has a 50:50 male to female ratio of AMs.

Newport East Labour AM John Griffiths says: "I know there's a lot of anxiety in Blaenau Gwent that they cannot choose the candidate they want. Now that this decision is made it is vitally important that they have a good choice of candidates from the left of the party.

"However, I support the system as the best way of creating equality and it is working well in the Assembly - just look at the cabinet which has women ministers of a very high calibre doing excellent work."