Labour civil war explodes as more left-wingers are ousted in ‘Stalinist’ cull
One of the only Corbynite candidates was purged from the Labour Party last night, after a day of internal wrangling over Diane Abbott and Lloyd Russel-Moyle.
“Honestly I’m so shocked right now, to be treated this badly”
— BBC Newsnight (@BBCNewsnight) May 29, 2024
Faiza Shaheen, who was set to stand for Labour, describes hearing that her candidacy had been pulled over liking a series of Tweets which she claims Labour said would frustrate its campaign#Newsnight pic.twitter.com/JtMIywDz2N
Sir Keir Starmer has sparked furious claims by the Labour left that he is behaving like Joseph Stalin, as yet more political opponents were last night purged by the party.
After a full day of furious rows about the future of Diane Abbott, news broke last night that fellow hard-left MP, Brighton Kemptown’s Lloyd Russel Moyle, is being investigated over a complaint and will be ineligible to stand at the election.
This news was in turn swiftly followed by the ousting of Corbynite candidate Faiza Shaheen, who came close to toppling Sir Iain Duncan Smith in last year’s general election and was one of the only hard-left candidates standing for Labour at the election.
In emotional scenes on Newsnight, Ms Shaheen revealed she’d received an email “an hour ago” saying the party had blocked her candidacy based on liking a number of offensive tweets about Israel.
She said she was in a “state of shock”, though said it was only a surprise that she “wasn’t blocked earlier” given her reputation as the only hard-left candidate remaining.
Ms Shaheen blasted Sir Keir, asking: “What message are you sending my community? What message are you sending the black community?”
“Honestly I’m so shocked right now, to be treated this badly.”
Diane Abbott, whose own row is far from resolved, last night said Ms Shaheen’s candidacy blocking was “appalling”.
She demanded to know: “Whose clever idea has it been to have a cull of left-wingers?”
The Labour Muslim Network has now intervened to call her deselection “unacceptable”.
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They said in a statement: “To use her tweets accounting personal experiences of Islamophobia as evidence for deselection is utterly outrageous.
“Telling a Muslim woman she is not allowed to talk about her own experiences of racism is clear Islamophobia.”
Last night’s brutal purge of Sir Keir’s political opponents risks yet another day of their election campaign being derailed by internal political wrangling.
Last night, former Green Party MP Caroline Lucas linked Ms Shaheen’s treatment with that of Diane Abbott’s, claiming they had both been “deliberately humiliated” by the Labour Party.
She described Ms Shaheen’s Newsnight outing as a “painful” watch.
She said: “Coming on the heels of the deliberate humiliation of Hackney Abbott, it speaks volumes about those in Labour leadership who apparently care so little about democracy - or even basic decency.”
Members of the Labour left were similarly enraged last night after the suspension of Brighton MP Lloyd Russell-Moyle, many of whom described the move as “outrageous” and accused the party of making its move to deliberately block his ability to stand.
