内容摘要：A man has died following a house fire in Bradford city centre.

A man has died following a house fire in Bradford city centre.

A bearded, avuncular figure who was serving as New Labour's first health secretary, he was 'persuaded' to stand against his old comrade Ken.Dobson had initially, and somewhat bravely, declared his desire to remain at health, but then had to give up his cabinet seat to run for a job he didn't want.

The internal workings of Labour can be difficult for outsiders - and many insiders - to navigate.In this case, an electoral college was mandated which led to the popular Livingstone not winning selection.The vote was a third each for party members, trade unions and London MPs and other elected representatives.

In the final ballot Livingstone won 60% of party members and 72% of affiliated unions, but Dobson won 86% of MPs, MEPs and Greater London Assembly candidates.Dobson therefore won a narrow overall victory, and the Blairites were accused of rigging the whole thing to keep Old Labour Ken from the nomination.

Livingstone for his part had promised not to run as an independent, then decided that that was what he was going to do after all.

The Tories also had a colourful time choosing their candidate."I remember thinking actually I don't think I want to do this for a year now, how do I get out of it?," she said.

"I remember going onto my Just Giving page and trying to extract myself from it."About 10 days in, I had raised £35."

Then everything changed.Her campaign was noticed by the BBC and everything snowballed. Other media started calling and a couple of days later, 97,000 people had visited her Facebook page.