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The Morning Star 2026 Conference
The cream of Starmer’s crop
ANDREW MURRAY gives the lowdown on the Labour rightwingers – selected with zero democratic input – attempting to parachute themselves into seats up and down the country
(left-right) Labour Party leader Sir Keir Starmer, deputy Labour leader Angela Rayner and shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves, at the launch event for Labour's campaign bus at Uxbridge College, while on the General Election campaign trail, June 1, 2024

KEIR STARMER, struggling to justify the racist axing of Faiza Shaheen as the selected Labour candidate for Chingford and Woodford Green in the general election, said that the party wanted only the “highest-quality candidates.”

The implication was that Shaheen, an acknowledged expert on inequality, was substandard. Of course, everyone understands that the real problem was her vocal pro-Palestinian views which attracted the ire of the ineffable Jewish Labour Movement.

But it raises a question — who does meet the quality threshold for Starmer? 

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