Starmer stabs anothe Black female Labour candidate in the back

[IwantToRetire]

“I think the Labour Party… needs to be a broad church - from what I can see that’s happening, that’s becoming more difficult”

Faiza Shaheen, who was set to stand for Labour, says her candidacy was pulled over liking a series of Tweets which she claims Labour said would frustrate its campaign

Interview on newsnight shorty after learning she has been deselected.https://x.com/BBCNewsnight/status/1795942561258889318

It seems someone has been going through candidates tweet accounts going back years, even before they were officially part of Labour.

If these tweets were so awful how come they were ever chosen as candidates in the first place.

She had spend the afternoon canvassing with the support of the local party. https://www.faizashaheen.co.uk/

What did the tweets she liked say?

You need to listen to the interview or maybe wait until tomorrow when there might be more details.

I think there was a suggestion there was more than one, some dating back to when she was an academic. ie she liked a tweet about an area of research someone tweeted about, not realising they had also said something or other.

But quite honestly, even is she shouldn't have liked a tweet, how come she was allowed to be a candidate for the last election and was selected for this election.

It actually make Labour look incompetent that at the very last minute they are suddenly coming up with tweets from years ago, which indicaes on 2 occossions their vetting procedure doesn't work.

Or it is just a purge.

Maybe they're just being cautious?

I'm a little bit gutted about this. She came within 1200 votes of beating IDS last time. I live in the next door constituency and she had High Grant here campaigning for her.
All for nowt. IDS must be skipping.

"If these tweets were so awful how come they were ever chosen as candidates in the first place."

When you look at the calibre of some actual MPs, you wonder how they were ever chosen as candidates too - but they clearly were. Constituency parties are like every other 'club' - very dependant on the actual individuals for how well they operate.

Loads of candidates got dumped in 2019 too.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/election-2019-50408438

If these tweets were so awful how come they were ever chosen as candidates in the first place.

Presumably the tweets had not come to anyone’s attention at that point. I’d like to know what the tweets were.

She appears to be a big Corbyn fan and basically very much on the hard left. If I were running a soft-center-left party, I wouldn’t want her involved either, sorry.

As an ethnic minority myself I really do think we need to be more concerned with what people do, say and think than the colour of their skin. Your appearance or “identity” should not be the important thing when you are standing for office.

I only mention my ethnicity because it’s assumed that representation is of primary importance to those of us from minority groups. I remember watching a girl with purple hair complaining that their weren’t any people who looked like her to vote for on question time and I thought, “who gives a fuck if they look like you or not, isn’t the most important thing that they are proposing policies that you think will be good for the country”.

Black females are not getting kick out for being black. It is because they are anti semitic. I do not like KS but he is right to do this. She belongs to fringe independent parties along with Corbyn.

How have we arrived at a place where the Labour Party is riddled with antisemitism? Where critical thinking is so diminished that being revolutionary and pro Palestine can blind people of colour to the complexity of the situation?
It's like an underlying attitude of 'pick your team then shout and boo the other side'. It's no way to function.

Tribalism is a disease. Identity politics.

Nothing about race. He’s ditching the extremist cranks. Wise. They can stand as independents if they want. But he knows they’d be trouble if they got any whiff of power in the labour party

https://www.jewishnews.co.uk/labour-poised-to-suspend-chingford-corbynista-candidate-over-divisive-gaza-campaign/

the “other side” seem to think she is all about inflaming community tensions. And in that case, get rid of her. MPs need to represent all their constituents. The last thing we need is more stoking division. Whatever happened to diplomacy?

Yes I saw her interview. She seemed to say she just accidentally like a sketch by a comedian ( I think) while she was breastfeeding, but reading the Times article, she seems to have also tweeted supporting the Green Party, which automatically means you can't stand anyway, along with saying Labour were institutionally islamophobic, so she was undermining her own campaign and party. I think someone else would have a better chance of beating IDS.

I don’t agree with this “purging” and actually think it is wrong tactically but the hard left reap what they sow. They were all “ there is no such thing as cancel culture “ when they had the upper hand.

Are you suggesting that Starmer acted because she was black and / or female? There's nothing to back that up in your post.

The media loves to trawl back into people's social media. With the last few years the Labour Party has had, any leader is bound to be cautious. Without any evidence of the tweets she liked, can we assume the are worse that what DA wrote, given one is suspended and one isn't?

But Diane Abbott also needs to go imo. She didn't say what she said in a heat of the moment chat or interview. It was a considered position she decided to publish in a newspaper. One that presumably took thought, drafting and review. How does anyone benefit by pitting minorities against each other?

KS can’t win either way.
You’ve got certain elements of the RW media currently eulogising Abbott who they previously mocked and derided horrendously. Anything to score a few political points. And then you’ve got the Corbynites frothing about both Shaheen and Russell Moyes being suspended as well. Even GC women who were apparently ‘life long labour voters’ still aren’t happy despite comments by Wes Streeting and others suggesting a turn around re gender ideology (some very cross TRAs on Reddit put it that way).

They've just proved her right then , haven't they. Labour will win this election in all probability, despite doing their best to alienate black and Muslim voters. But it may come back to bite them on the arse next time.

Some semblance of peace might have returned to Palestine by then. But I suspect Starmer will find something else to be wilfully obtuse about. Perhaps he'll start another war.

According to this article she has been ditched for being an antisemitie not because of her skin colour. If this article is correct I say good riddens to her

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2024/05/30/faiza-shaheen-labour-mp-general-election-left-keir-starmer/

I dont agree with/understand someone standing as a 'pro palestinian' candidate in any case (or anti)

Be pro NHS, or anti NHS, be pro SEN places or anti SEN places or be pro inheritance tax or anti inheritance tax etc etc. These are things that apply to the UK, these are things that affect the person on the street in their every day life

Its as ludicrous as saying you're pro or anti China or the Congo or any other controversial world issue/place. You can absolutely have an opinion but for it to be your platform in a UK election where your job is to look after your local constituents is ridiculous.

And I agree with someone above, who cares if a person looks like you, what difference does that make to the world

It is easy to miss the importance of Labour's internal feuds here.

There is a right faction inside Labour that wants to remove left leaning candidates from inside Labour and think this is MORE important than winning the election.

Of course it is vica versa as well.

Thinking that the leadership office are causing maximum drama by targeting enemies inside an election campaign and waited years to do it doesn't make that much sense. Starmer isn't doing this, he is reacting to stuff which is landing on his desk.

It makes perfect sense for faction fighters though. They find their targets wait till they can hit them at a perfect point. They don't care if it makes Labour look absurd. They want to eliminate their enemies at all cost. The Labour left did similar in 2019 used the campaign period to get their candidates in.

This is important because the TRAs have a similar mindset so they think Streeting and Rosie have to go.

Excellent post.

I suspect most Muslim votes care more about their own public services and living conditions than Palestine. The Left have always been obsessed with Palestine, even before October 7th almost to the exclusion of everything else. Its not relevant to a UK election.

Exactly this. Nor is it an attempt to purge left wing candidates from the party - although there is an unfortunate middle bit in the Venn diagram of antisemites and the far left of the Labour Party.

Yes this is an important point.

If anything DA has been given extra leeway because of the colour of her skin. There is a large contingent that will support her regardless of anything odious or inadequate she does (see also Meghan Markle) simply because of that.

Her anti-semitism is appalling. Thinking just ‘apologising’ is enough is absurd.

She also seems deeply unwell, and was shaking quite violently yesterday. I wish her well on a personal level but there comes a time when it’s best to leave the stage.