Keir Starmer is under increasing pressure to end what his critics say is a “purge” of those in Labor left behind ahead of a critical meeting of the party’s governing body next week.
Party members on Thursday accused the Labor leader of orchestrating a “left-wing massacre” after several senior figures were told they will not be selected as candidates for seats they have previously held or contested.
Members of the party’s National Executive Committee will meet next week to agree Labour’s full slate of candidate MPs in what will be a tumultuous meeting with the fates of several candidates in the balance.
One of those likely to spark the fiercest debate is Diane Abbott, the veteran London MP who said this week she was barred from running again as a Labor candidate but vowed to run again even as an independent.
Abbott received the backing of Labor deputy leader Angela Rayner on Thursday, who told the Guardian the veteran Labor MP should be allowed to stand again and was not treated “fairly or appropriately” by some party colleagues.
Her comments sparked speculation that the Labor leadership would back down on its demand for Abbott to stand aside, with Starmer himself insisting on Thursday that no final decision had been made.
Others also complained about being canceled, including Feiza Shaheen, who had already started campaigning in Chingford and Woodford Green, and Lloyd Russell-Moyle, who was suspended as Labor MP for Brighton Kemptown.
Abbott was suspended as a Labor MP last year after she wrote a letter to the Observer in which she disparaged racism against the Irish, Jews and Travellers. Her whip was restored this week after a months-long investigation.
Rayner said: “If Diane wanted to stand up again, I see no reason why she couldn’t… The investigation has concluded and it is confirmed that she is now back in the Parliamentary Labor Party and on the whip.”
Starmer was pressed on Abbott’s fate during a campaign visit to Wales. “No decision has been taken to ban her and you have to remember that she was a pioneer as an MP,” he said. “She has overcome incredible challenges to achieve what she has achieved in her political career.”
But in comments that sparked further anger in the party, the Labor leader added: “I have always been keen that we have the best quality candidates as we go into this election.”
Starmer denied deciding the fate of Labor candidates across the country, insisting that Labour’s NEC should make the final decision on who is allowed to contest the election.
But his critics point out that several of his close allies have been selected as candidates for safe Labor seats in the past 48 hours, including Josh Simons, head of the Starmerite Labor Together think tank, and Luke Ackhurst, a centrist member of the executive committee.
The intra-party battle is likely to reach its conclusion next week when the committee meets to sign off on the final list of party candidates across the country.
Mish Rahman, a left-wing member of the NEC, said: “Starmer bully boys want to find seats for their girlfriends, so they’re picking left-wing women of colour. They think their public humiliation plays well with the target voters. There will be a price for this. The communities that Labor takes for granted will not be counted on forever as long as the party continues on this path.”
after the promotion of the newsletter
Gemma Bolton, another panel member, told BBC Radio 4’s World at One that she hoped the meeting would lead to “a clear consensus that Diane [Abbott] must be a candidate’.
Starmer’s allies have a majority in the NEC and can push through their chosen slate of candidates if they choose. However, some in the party believe they are likely to back down at least on the Abbott case to avoid further rifts within the party.
One Labor spokesman said: “The problem with the last few days is not that Kiir can’t get what he wants, it’s that we spent valuable time on the campaign trail talking about our domestic issues rather than the Tory party.”
While Abbott’s fate remains unclear, Shaheen, who was told on Wednesday night that she would not be allowed to stand in the seat she contested in 2019 due to past social media activity, has promised to take his case to court.
Shaheen said she had been subjected to a “systematic campaign of racism, Islamophobia and harassment”. She added: “I have come to the inescapable conclusion that Labour, far from being a broad and inclusive church, has an ingrained culture of bullying, a palpable problem with black and brown people and thinks nothing of dragging a person’s good name through the mud in pursuit of a factional agenda without thought to the impact on the mental health and well-being of the members involved.’
Abbott reacted to the news of its cancellation by posting on X: “Horrifying. Whose bright idea was it to have a left-wing team?’
Some on the party’s left believe other MPs could also be suspended in the coming days, with several saying they are trying to keep a low profile to avoid being singled out by the leadership.
Starmer spent much of Thursday trying to avoid comment on the deepening row within his own party. However, his backbench ally Darren Jones, the shadow chief secretary to the Treasury, denied the leftists had been deliberately targeted for factional reasons.
“There are a lot of my colleagues in the parliamentary Labor Party who would identify as left-leaning, who are endorsed Labor candidates running in their constituency,” Jones told Times Radio on Thursday.
