SIR KEIR STARMER faces a new and formidable electoral challenge as former South African MP Andrew Feinstein declared he will oppose the Labour leader in his north London constituency at the general election.
Mr Feinstein will fight to represent Holborn and St Pancras in Parliament on a programme that includes strong opposition to Israel’s genocide in Gaza, action to tackle the housing crisis, and a pledge to be an accountable and honest MP.
He launched his campaign today at a gallery in Somers Town, attended by community representatives, with a slashing attack on the integrity of Sir Keir, who has held the seat since 2015.
“Keir Starmer’s politics are mendacious, unprincipled and serve his billionaire donors rather than his constituents,” he said.
The Labour leader’s abandonment of the 10 progressive pledges on which he won election “raises questions about his honesty and integrity,” Mr Feinstein added.
Sir Keir’s support for Israel cutting off water and power to Gaza and “his attempts to deny that he did so when the video evidence is there speaks to a remarkable lack of political honesty and contrition.”
The Jewish son of a Holocaust survivor and long-time resident of Camden, the borough wherein the constituency sits, the challenger has won the backing of a range of local community organisations and individuals.
He served as an African National Congress MP in South Africa for over seven years before quitting over arms industry-related political corruption and has since worked in Britain as a campaigner on the issue.
The contest in Holborn and St Pancras will likely be one of the most high-profile of a range of independent challenges from the left to Labour MPs, arising from the party’s vast shift to the right under Sir Keir and its position on Gaza in particular.
As such the Feinstein campaign is already receiving substantial financial backing and will likely garner political support from across Britain and, indeed, the world.
His campaign is already on the receiving end of dirty tricks, like suddenly cancelled hall bookings in the Labour-controlled borough.
The message was summed up by Mr Feinstein as opposition to the bipartisan Westminster offer of “permanent austerity, forever wars and climate change with all the socio-economic degradation that comes with those.
“Local people are crying out for change, not more of the same from Labour and the Tories,” he added.
