Labour picks John Prescott to run for police commissioner

Former Deputy Prime Minister Lord Prescott has been announced as one of Labour's candidates to be a police commissioner later this year.

He will stand in Humberside, which includes the seat of Hull East, where he served as an MP for 40 years.

Commissioners, to be elected in England and Wales in November, will oversee the work of police, which ministers say will make forces more accountable.

Labour, which opposes the change, says it will "make the best of a bad job".

The government says commissioners, paid £70,000 and covering each of the forces in England and Wales, will create a more in-touch police service, better equipped to deal with people's concerns.

At Labour's campaign launch in Birmingham, party leader Ed Miliband said: "We didn't seek these police commissioner elections. We thought that if you were spending £125m most people would want that money spent on the police, not on new elections.

"But if these elections do go ahead - if the government insists on them going ahead - we, Labour, are determined to make the best of a bad job.

"What we are going to be arguing for in these elections is very, very important.

"First of all we are going to be saying taking officers off the streets is the wrong thing to do - it's not what our communities want, it's not what the police want."

Former Liverpool Wavertree MP Jane Kennedy has been chosen as Labour's candidate for Merseyside's commissioner.

Cardiff South and Penarth MP Alun Michael has been nominated to run in south Wales with his son, Tal Michael, representing north Wales.