Diane Abbott accuses Sir Keir Starmer of ‘culling’ Labour left wingers after ‘appalling’ deselection decision
Sir Keir Starmer has been accused of trying to purge general election candidates from the left of the Labour Party.
Questions remain about whether veteran Corbyn ally Diane Abbott will be barred from standing again, while Labour suspended one candidate and declined to endorse another.
Labour’s general election campaign has been overshadowed by the internal chaos over the selection of candidates, which includes the selection of influential figures on the Labour right.
Ms Abbott called it a “cull of left wingers”.
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Leader Sir Keir said no decision had yet been taken about whether Ms Abbott, the UK’s first black female MP, would be allowed to defend her Hackney North seat of 37 years.
She claimed she had been barred from standing after having the whip restored to her this week following a year-long suspension as she was investigated over a letter she wrote in The Guardian suggesting Jewish people do not face racism.
Ms Abbott vowed to stand in Hackney North “by any means possible”.
Meanwhile, Lloyd Russell-Moyle, who was MP for Brighton Kemptown, said he had been suspended by Labour over a “vexatious and politically motivated complaint” against him and said he is not being allowed to stand for the party.
He said it was a “false allegation” from eight years ago “that I dispute totally and I believe it was designed to disrupt this election”.
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Abbott ‘not barred’ from standing for Labour
Faiza Shaheen was deselected as the Labour candidate for Chingford and Woodford Green after standing in the seat, held by veteran Tory Iain Duncan Smith, at the last election for Labour.
She said she was in a “state of shock” at “being treated this badly” after receiving an email saying her candidacy had been blocked.
Dr Shaheen was blocked for liking a tweet that allegedly downplayed antisemitism accusations. She said another post involved her describing her experiences of Islamophobia.
A lawyer for Dr Shaheen described the Labour Party process to be selected as “abhorrent, unprofessional and unfair”.
They said a member of the panel interviewing her to be a candidate did not engage and no consideration was given to her being a new mother, with just 5.5 hours notice given before she had to appear in front of the panel and said she could not hear questions properly as her four-month-old baby was crying.
The lawyer added that several of the social media messages raised as misconduct are “several years old”, including from before she became a Labour member.
“The Labour party had ample time to raise questions over this, including during the selection process,” the lawyer said.
She told BBC’s Newsnight: “On top of Gaza, on top of Diane Abbott and now this to me, when there’s such clear double standards of how other people have been treated when stuff has happened… what message are you sending my community? What message are you sending the black community?”
Ms Abbott accused Labour of carrying out a “cull of left wingers” as she branded the decision to block Dr Shaheen “appalling”.
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Faiza Shaheen with Jeremy Corbyn in 2019. Pic: PA
Asked if he is blocking left-wing candidates from standing, Sir Keir said: “No. I’ve said repeatedly over the last two years… that I want the highest quality candidates – that’s been the position for a very long time.”
Shadow cabinet minister Darren Jones denied there was a “purge” of the left, saying there were many colleagues who “would define themselves as being on the left”, who have been endorsed as Labour candidates.
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Labour’s ruling national executive committee (NEC), which is handling the selection of about 20 final Labour candidates this week, said the final decision on whether Ms Abbott can defend her seat lies with Sir Keir.
On Mr Russell-Moyle’s suspension, a Labour Party spokesman said: “The Labour Party takes all complaints extremely seriously and they are fully investigated in line with our rules and procedures, and any appropriate disciplinary action is taken.”
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While those on the left have accused Labour of purging them, candidates on the Labour right have been given the green flag to stand.
Starmer ally and activist Luke Akehurst, who is a member of the NEC, is the candidate for North Durham and Josh Simons, director of the Starmerite thinktank Labour Together, will fight for the Makerfield seat.
Earlier this year, Mr Simons apologised after suggesting people-smuggling gangs could be put on a barge and “shipped to the north of Scotland”, saying: “Who cares?”
Former adviser to shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves, Heather Iqbal, was selected in Dewsbury and Batley, and journalist Paul Waugh will fight for Rochdale.
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Rachel Reeves has hinted that taxes are likely to be raised this autumn after a major U-turn on the government’s controversial welfare bill.
Sir Keir Starmer’s Universal Credit and Personal Independent Payment Bill passed through the House of Commons on Tuesday after multiple concessions and threats of a major rebellion.
MPs ended up voting for only one part of the plan: a cut to universal credit (UC) sickness benefits for new claimants from £97 a week to £50 from 2026/7.
Initially aimed at saving £5.5bn, it now leaves the government with an estimated £5.5bn black hole – close to breaching Ms Reeves’s fiscal rules set out last year.
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Rachel Reeves’s fiscal dilemma
In an interview with The Guardian, the chancellor did not rule out tax rises later in the year, saying there were “costs” to watering down the welfare bill.
“I’m not going to [rule out tax rises], because it would be irresponsible for a chancellor to do that,” Ms Reeves told the outlet.
“We took the decisions last year to draw a line under unfunded commitments and economic mismanagement.
“So we’ll never have to do something like that again. But there are costs to what happened.”
Meanwhile, The Times reported that, ahead of the Commons vote on the welfare bill, Ms Reeves told cabinet ministers the decision to offer concessions would mean taxes would have to be raised.
The outlet reported that the chancellor said the tax rises would be smaller than those announced in the 2024 budget, but that she is expected to have to raise tens of billions more.
It comes after Ms Reeves said she was “totally” up to continuing as chancellor after appearing tearful at Prime Minister’s Questions.
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Why was the chancellor crying at PMQs?
Criticising Sir Keir for the U-turns on benefit reform during PMQs, Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch said the chancellor looked “absolutely miserable”, and questioned whether she would remain in post until the next election.
Sir Keir did not explicitly say that she would, and Ms Badenoch interjected to say: “How awful for the chancellor that he couldn’t confirm that she would stay in place.”
In her first comments after the incident, Ms Reeves said she was having a “tough day” before adding: “People saw I was upset, but that was yesterday.
“Today’s a new day and I’m just cracking on with the job.”
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Reeves is ‘totally’ up for the job
Sir Keir also told Sky News’ political editor Beth Rigby on Thursday that he “didn’t appreciate” that Ms Reeves was crying in the Commons.
“In PMQs, it is bang, bang, bang,” he said. “That’s what it was yesterday.
“And therefore, I was probably the last to appreciate anything else going on in the chamber, and that’s just a straightforward human explanation, common sense explanation.”
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