Labor’s factional bosses have gone from faceless to red-faced after a collapse in backroom negotiations left the party unable to decide on its upper house candidates for next year’s Victorian election.

ALP politicians in Victoria’s Legislative Council will be waiting until the middle of next year to know where they stand at the November 2026 election after tussling over the party’s number one tickets descended into what has been described by one MP as a “total shitshow”.

Preselections for lower house seats already held by Victorian Labor closed Friday, but the question of who will represent the party in the first and second positions for the state’s upper house will not be decided until the end of May next year.

The party’s factions have all but signed off on a stability deal outlining

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