IT is time for Labour’s affiliated unions to step up and put a halt to the pre-election purge sweeping through the party’s parliamentary candidates.
The latest and most shocking case is the eviction of Faiza Shaheen as the candidate for Chingford and Woodford Green in east London, where she was within touching distance of defeating former Tory leader Iain Duncan-Smith — and this in the constituency once represented by Thatcherite hardman Norman Tebbit.
Instead, she has been unceremoniously dumped on the basis of a risible dossier including decades-old indications of support for a local Green candidate, liking a tweet which was a quote from Nelson Mandela, and following public pressure from the Jewish Labour Movement.
It is a decision only explicable by factional intoxication. Shaheen is a charismatic and thoughtful Muslim woman eager to serve the community she was raised in. In 2019, as Labour’s candidate, she secured one of the few swings to the party.
Since then she has campaigned tirelessly to win the seat, taking her newborn son on the campaign trail with her. Her crime is only vocal sympathy for the Palestinian cause.
Her deselection is undoubtedly racist in impact, particularly following the scandalous treatment of Diane Abbott, even if the inspiration is a mixture of the virulent hatred of the left rampant in Labour’s ruling circles and a determination to align the party with Israel.
Just a few weeks ago Labour lost hundreds of thousands of votes at local elections over its stance on Gaza, particularly among Muslim communities.
In response, Labour pledged to “hold a conversation” with those communities and “listen” to their concerns.
If the treatment of Faiza Shaheen is anything to go by — combined with reports that Poplar MP Apsana Begum, another young Muslim woman outspoken in support of Palestine, is under threat as a candidate — the conversation will be brief.
Others too are being dumped, with Lloyd Russell-Moyle in Brighton being a victim, in this case of anonymous allegations relating to an ancient incident.
Other left MPs and candidates are now fearful that they will fall victim to the factional juggernaut before or when Labour’s full national executive meets on June 4 to adopt candidates.
In their place Labour is parachuting, without a pretence of local democracy, right-wing hard cases into safe seats — people like Israel lobbyist Luke Akehurst and Labour Together’s Josh Simons, who insulted the whole of Scotland with his remarks earlier this year, who would struggle to win any sort of competitive selection.
The outcome is clearly intended to be a neutered parliamentary party unable and unwilling to hold a Starmer government to account as it inevitably fails to resolve the problems besetting the country.
But the price being paid is the alienation of whole communities and millions of voters from the Labour Party, a price the factionalists in charge at Labour HQ feel is worth paying.
Only Labour’s affiliated trade unions can bring an end to this onslaught on decency and democracy. Six unions, including Labour’s huge affiliate Unite, showed the way by writing to Starmer demanding that Abbott be allowed to stand for the party.
But more is needed. Two trade union members of Labour’s executive were on the panel that did in Shaheen.
The unions should be sharper. They too will find their influence diminished if they acquiesce in this right-wing purge. Already their nominees for many Labour seats have been arbitrarily ruled out, and this in the party they founded.
Enough is surely enough. Trade unionists should urgently demand that their leaders instruct union NEC representatives to take a stand.
