MASS revulsion at Sir Keir Starmer’s “appalling” treatment of Diane Abbott has forced him to U-turn and allow her to stand as a Labour candidate.
The Labour leader gave the green light for her candidacy in Hackney North and Stoke Newington today, having previously refused to do so.
His 11th-hour decision comes amid uproar at the party’s “purge” of left-wing candidates and accusations of racism levelled at its leadership.
The long-running row over Ms Abbott’s political future has overshadowed Labour’s election campaign.
Speaking during a campaign visit to Scotland, Sir Keir backtracked while praising the Labour veteran as a “trailblazer.”
He said: “The whip has obviously been restored to her now and she is free to go forward as a Labour candidate.
“Diane Abbott was elected in 1987, the first black woman MP. She has carved a path for other people to come into politics and public life.”
Ms Abbott was suspended from Labour last year, with the whip being restored this week after months of delay.
However, it was briefed out that she might be “barred” from running for the party in the general election.
Labour sources said Ms Abbott will be the party’s candidate in her long-held London constituency.
Left-wing national executive committee (NEC) member Mish Rahman said Ms Abbott should “never have had to go through this.”
“For months and months Starmer, untruthfully, claimed that it was an independent process and that he wasn't involved,” he said.
“Then he said it was down to the NEC. That has been revealed now for the lie it was, as he’s now himself decided that she will be a candidate. Not the NEC.
“This is the sensible decision and we all know that it was an act of self-destruction and completely avoidable.”
Elsewhere in Labour’s hapless election campaign, it was more Tories in and socialists out.
The party rolled out the red carpet for another defector from the Conservative Party, Bolton North-East MP Mark Logan, who said, bizarrely, that the Tories were “now unrecognisable” from the party he joined in 2014.
He claimed that Labour would “bring back optimism into British life” — which has scarcely been the tenor of its election campaign to date.
A number of right-wing members of Labour’s national executive have also imposed themselves on local parties as candidates in safe seats, while purging left-wingers and dissenting voices.
The suspension of Brighton Kempton MP Lloyd Russell-Moyle and the decision not to endorse candidate Faiza Shaheen in Chingford and Woodford Green have come in for particular criticism.
Ms Shaheen said she was in shock and felt she was the victim of a “huge injustice” after not being endorsed as the Labour candidate in her north London seat.
She was blocked over liking a series of social media posts on social media site X that allegedly downplayed anti-semitism accusations.
Supporters of Ms Shaheen were expected to hold a rally in her constituency later last night as the Morning Star went to press.
In a statement, the organisers said: “We are appalled by the treatment of Faiza Shaheen, who was democratically selected to represent our community.
“We call for her immediate reinstatement as the Labour Party candidate and the right to vote for her to be our local MP.”
Ms Shaheen claims she has been subject to “a systematic campaign of racism, Islamophobia and bullying” and is considering legal action against the move.
Shama Tatler, a right-wing councillor from Brent and Labour to Win factionalist, has now been imposed on an enraged constituency party as their candidate.
Another candidate is national executive member Michael Wheeler, who served on the panel that excluded Ms Shaheen on the basis of a dodgy dossier of her “likes” — he has been given Worley and Eccles without a vote.
Unison’s Mark Ferguson, another NEC member, will stand in Gateshead. Outgoing MP Ian Mearns indicated he would retire last December, but the local party was not allowed to select a replacement itself.
Mr Ferguson ran the unsuccessful campaign of Blairite Liz Kendall for the Labour leadership in 2015, which secured just 4.5 per cent of the membership vote.
His union colleague Wendy Nichols was also on the Shaheen panel.
The third member of the NEC panel, Gurinder Singh Josan, has been imposed on Smethwick, where he is odds-on to succeed retiring right-wing trade unionist John Spellar.
Other NEC members parachuted into safe seats include committee chair James Asser in West Ham and Beckton, while Israel lobbyist Luke Akehurst gets North Durham.
Mr Rahman added: “Starmer’s bully boys want to find seats for their mates, so they pick on left-wing women of colour.
“They think that publicly humiliating them plays well with target voters. There will be a cost for this.
“Communities that Labour is taking for granted will not be relied on forever as the party continues down this path.”
Campaign group Momentum said: “The people conducting the job interviews are giving themselves the jobs. This is corruption, plain and simple.
“Diane Abbott has been bullied and abused her whole career.
“Starmer tried to force her out. She held firm — and won. This is a huge victory.
“But we know that Starmer’s appalling treatment of Diane is just one case among many.
“Faiza Shaheen should now be reinstated as the Labour candidate in Chingford and Woodford Green, as members voted.”
As part of the massive surge in support for Ms Abbott, a grassroots petition reached over 19,000 signatories.
Speaking on behalf of the two groups that intiated the petition, Matt Willgress, of the Labour Assembly Against Austerity and Arise: A Festival of Left Ideas, said: “If today’s reports are true, this is an important victory for Diane Abbott and her supporters, and shows why public and vocal campaigning for Labour Party democracy is so important.”
He added: “A key task for activists across all the left, labour and trade union movements now is to build maximum opposition to further stitch-ups, and call for the reinstatement of Lloyd Russell-Moyle and Faiza Shaheen as Labour candidates.”
The executive is to meet on June 4 to finalise the list of candidates.
