Starmer accused of ‘purge’ after Labour removes leftwing candidates

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Sir Keir Starmer has been accused of purging the left wing of his party after several candidates were removed from the ballot and a raft of loyalists from Labour’s centre and right were selected for safe seats.

Hours after veteran MP Diane Abbott said she had been banned from standing for the party in the July 4 election, Labour withdrew its support from two leftwing candidates, including a sitting MP.

Faiza Shaheen, an economist and inequality campaigner, was told by the party’s national executive committee on Wednesday that she would no longer be its candidate for Chingford and Woodford Green, a seat held by former Tory leader Iain Duncan Smith.

Shaheen told BBC’s Newsnight that the decision appeared to have been taken over her activity on social media, including liking a post that referred to an “Israel lobby” that influences policy.

Shaheen told the BBC she felt foolish for liking the post on X, and was in a “state of shock” over Labour’s decision.

“Everyone said I was the one socialist that was running . . . it was a surprise that I wasn’t blocked earlier, everyone knows that,” she added. “Of course they were going to come for me and I did something stupid.”

Momentum, the leftwing pressure group, said that Shaheen’s removal was part of what amounted to a purge of the party. “Instead of uniting to beat Iain Duncan Smith and win the seat for Labour, Starmer’s team seem more interested in purging a Muslim woman,” it said.

The furore — which comes just weeks after Starmer welcomed rightwing MP Natalie Elphicke into the party — has led some Labour MPs to claim that the Labour leader is ruthlessly sidelining his internal opponents in favour of centrist allies.

One centrist Labour MP said they could not understand how the party had blocked leftwing candidates after it had permitted Elphicke to defect to the party earlier this month. “I believe in the big tent!” they said.

Since being elected as Labour leader in 2020, Starmer has pledged to root out any suggestion of antisemitism from the party’s ranks, after his predecessor Jeremy Corbyn was criticised over its handling of allegations of abuse.

On Thursday, Shaheen said she was considering taking legal action against the Labour party over the decision to remove her from the ballot. “I’m a little overwhelmed right now, so will use this morning to meet with my campaign and legal teams to discuss my next steps,” she said on X.

Labour also announced a round of selections overnight on Wednesday including Josh Simons, director of Labour Together, a think-tank close to the party leadership, and Luke Akehurst, an influential member of Labour’s national executive committee.

The veteran Westminster journalist Paul Waugh was selected for Rochdale in Greater Manchester, a seat won by the firebrand leftwing politician George Galloway in February’s by-election.

Veteran MP Diane Abbott said on Wednesday that she had been barred from running as a Labour candidate, after having the whip restored on Tuesday, though this was denied by Starmer.

She had been suspended last year for suggesting Jewish, Irish and Traveller people only experienced “prejudice” rather than racism.

Darren Jones, Labour’s shadow chief secretary, told the BBC on Thursday that the situation with Abbott was “unfortunate” but insisted that the party’s complaints process was independent.

The party also suspended Lloyd Russell-Moyle, MP for Brighton Kemptown and Peacehaven, on Wednesday, and prevented him from standing as a candidate in July’s election. Russell-Moyle said the move related to a “vexatious” complaint stemming from his alleged behaviour eight years ago.

Labour said that the party “takes all complaints extremely seriously and they are fully investigated in line with our rules and procedures”.