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 you expect from a Starmer led team. Serious question?

Traditional Labour voters, and now those who identify as 'progressives' do not have much time for Starmer. Expecting radical change from an incoming Labour government is very wishful thinking, in my view - bound to end in bitter disappointment for those who still believe, or for whom being rid of the Tories is the most important thing.

To be fair, that idiot Milliband Let them back in with "give us £3 and you can vote for The leader"

Yes we can't have poor people swamping the Labour Party . That would never do. Got to have corporate backers like the Tories.

A new socialist party might work under PR. You could envisage a Lab / Tory coalition to keep them out of office in the fullness of time. At least it would provide clarity.

If your concern with poor people then lower the membership fee. Membership comes with responsibilities. "Here's £3 let me vote for a leader" doesn't. HTH

BTW around 75% of the £3 supporters were in the ABC1 social groups

So the day after she lost in 2019, Faiza said 'enjoy your victory but me and all the troublemakers, we'll be back soon' She then moved to New York for three years. Say what you like about IDS but he was at least around and helping people at that time. She's been a divisive nightmare where conservative and moderate Labour supporters were abused by hers and I'm thrilled she's gone. That said, the person they've parachuted in has absolutely no links or knowledge of the constituency and I've concluded that Labour HQ really don't care about winning the seat. There are pictures going around of Keir Starmer in Chingford in 2019 telling people how great she is but all of a sudden she's an anti-Semite and two of the people on her deselection panel have got safe seats....jobs for the centrist dads! The whole thing really stinks, I'll be voting green or spoiling my ballot.

She has just shared a picture of a local canvasser (without the canvasser’s consent, I assume, as she was snapped from behind), with the legend “Asking me for my vote?!!!! Wtaf” on Twitter. She does not come across as a very sensible, professional or adult politician.

She then moved to New York for three years.

Well, I don't know the details here, but, to be fair, she had a living to make. She's a professional economist, and, as she hadn't won the seat, she needed a job. I presume she got a job in New York that she couldn't afford not to take?

I'm just giving her the benefit of the doubt.

To compare her to IDS in that instance is unfair, as he was the MP, she wasn't. He had to be there. It was his literal job!

She's a local there. Grew up in the area, went to school there. Lived there most of her life. She very definitely cares enormously about the local area and the people there.

Re what she said after the 2019 election .Well, I actually personally see that as fairly innocent. Probably mildly humorous, using figures of speech. But, apart from that, it's a totally separate issue from the one at hand about getting de-selected as the candidate for having liked a tweet.
To be honest, if we scrutinised everything every electoral candidate is ever on record for saying, we'd probably conclude that none are suitable.

I do totally agree with your last points though. Yes, it's all very odd. It does seem that Starmer has decided that because he's currently predicted to win with such a thumping majority, he can afford to lose Chingford. I actually think polls will narrow, the Greens gain more seats, and some independents too. I really do think Keir Starmer may come to regret his treatment of Faiza and others on the left. He's alienated many voters for a long time to come.

To be fair, she liked the Green Party tweets many years ago, long before she was even a member of the Labour Party.
Considering Keir Starmer has welcomed actual Conservative MPs into the Labour fold, it's totally disingenuous of them to use this against Faiza.

It's not a tweet she wrote though! It's a tweet she (probably accidentally) liked.
It was attached to a video she watched. That's the thing she was liking.
She acknowledged what's wrong with the tweet and she apologised.
Numerous political candidates have got away with far worse.
People are being so harsh to this poor woman 😳

Probably best to stay away from politics and the internet if you're the sort of person who can't do it without 'accidentally' liking nazi antisemetic propaganda.

She'd just had a baby. She probably wasn't fully concentrating.
Also, as explained, I think it was the video she was liking, not the tweet. She's explained this.
The video was very balanced. Just comedically illustrating how difficult it is to discuss the middle-east without falling victim to gotcha-ism. On both sides. Which I honestly agree with. It was a Jon Stewart sketch, and he's Jewish.
Also, she apologised, and acknowledged the tweet was wrong. I also think the tweet was wrong. But, I believe in forgiveness. If someone is contrite, we should forgive them, or we never make progress in life.
Obviously if someone did something really terrible there'd have been consequences, even with an apology (I'm thinking of acts of violence for example) but, honestly liking a tweet by mistake, an apology should suffice.
But Faiza's deselection had absolutely nothing to do with that. That's just an excuse the Labour Party have come up with. As explained up thread, many candidates have done far worse, and have not been deselected.

Apologies. Only just read this.
Fair question. I actually made a decision to vote for The Green Party some time ago. I live in a Labour/Tory marginal on the south coast, so that's quite something. So, I don't expect much from Starmer's Labour at all as a lefty.
However, I did expect some very basic decency and fairness. To keep on someone who actually did racially abuse a journalist, and oust someone else for liking a tweet, is so obviously wrong. The former being a white man, the latter a woman of colour. Yes, I was naive to think the Labour Party wouldn't sink so low.

I just saw a tweet where her and Ash Sarkar were basically throwing “coconut” jibes at Sajid Javid. “He probably uses boil in the bag rice” “orders lemon and herb at nandos”. 🙄 Yeah fuck her.

God I loathe people who level “race traitor” at other people. I was once accused of being a coconut for using a word the idiot I was speaking to didn’t understand. Also for being an atheist and for smoking and for reading. Sick of these people trying to force conformity on the rest of us.

Her behaviour since her deselected probably confirms it was the correct decision to deselect her. She comes across as quite nasty.

I'm sure she's not perfect. But, everyone is flawed.
I think people are scrutinising everything she's said/done to an unreasonable degree. Honestly, if you subjected every political candidate to the same level of scrutiny, they'd probably nearly all be judged unsuitable.
Also, I think people really need to give her a break. She's just had a huge shock, and been treated appallingly. She must be hurting terribly. I can understand why a canvasser for her replacement knocking on her door would be a gut punch. Can you not?
Of course it's always wrong to photograph someone without their consent. If that's what happened here, then I do disagree with that. I don't know the details enough to comment though.
But, as I said above, nobody is perfect, and I do think people are expecting much higher standards of this woman than other candidates, which is simply unjust.
Finally, the nasty thing, is 14 years of austerity and gross I equality. Sadly I increasingly don't think Labour in its current form will do much, if anything, to improve the lives of poor and marginalised people. More of the same...

*inequality

Do you have children? Did you find yourself accidentally liking nazi antisemitic propaganda when they were tiny?

To be fair, the Green party have been employing pretty ruthless tactics too - to rid themselves of the problem of members who are in touch with the reality of biological sex.

😂 I'm so sorry, I don't know if it was your intention or not, but I couldn't help but find your post genuinely very funny! I In a dark way. I actually laughed out loud when I read it. I don't mean that as an insult, I promise. Sincere apologies if that wasn't your intention. It was just something about the way you worded it.
Anyway, I'm not even on Twitter, and I obviously abhor anti-semitism, Nazism and all forms of prejudice. Hopefully that answers your question.
But, I think you were perhaps missing my points before? I do think that liking the tweet in question was a mistake. I do think the tropes in the tweet were wrong. But, I also think it genuinely sounds as though it was a mistake; in the throes of sleep deprivation, and probably more a liking of the video.
She explained. She apologised, that's the end of that.
As explained above, it's just so unjust, when other candidates have done things multiple times worse, and not been deselected. But you see, as explained before, it's not about the blooming tweet. It's about the right-wing coming up with an excuse to purge the left-wing, because it doesn't suit their agenda.
I don't understand why you're so determined to think the worst in this case? I'm Irish (lived in England many years) I've known people (usually due to clumsiness) come out with stereotypes about Ireland and Irishness, including massive ignorance about the potato famine. I don't like it; but if the person explains the context and apologises, I accept it, and move on. Maybe explanations and apologies are sincere and maybe they're not. But, I don't have the energy to dwell on it or to think the worst.
I'm not Jewish, and I'm not you. So it's entirely up to you how you think and feel. I wish you the best.

Anyway, I think I'm going to leave this thread now. Too much madness. How anyone can think it's acceptable to bully a new mum who'd worked so hard for her local area for so long, and for people of all faiths and none, is beyond me.
It seems like a witch-hunt to me, and it's pretty unpleasant to watch.
Peace to all.

She is a bit anti-Semitic, I think. Saw interview. Not especially articulate.

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/article/2024/jun/03/faiza-shaheen-has-been-badly-let-down-by-labour-as-have-voters

I do think that in general the focus on things people have tweeted, and worse, things they have "liked" is going to be a problem for politics across the board. Especially when there is so much of what is frankly hypersensitivity. And in some, maybe a lot, of cases, it's hypersensitivity being used very deliberately as a weapon.

A couple of years ago I lived in a town (not UK but similar system) where one party's candidate was deselected due to a tweet he'd made at university. He was youngish, so it was something like 8 years before, but still, he was very young. I know plenty of people who would be solid MPs in my view who said really stupid shit in university.

Liking or reposting things doesn't always mean agreeing either.

On the other hand - sometimes it does become clear that someone is unsuitable for a political job, but not really for a reason it's easy to block them for. But it may be that the nature of democracy means those kinds of buffoons need to be allowed, if the local people choose them - even if the party would rather not have them.

And, more generally, not just in politics. To what extent is it OK, for example, for prospective employers to trail through your (sometimes distant) SM history to determine whether you're 'suitable'? The world and his dog seem to think they have the right to go Inch-High Private Eye these days. It's a trend I don't like.

Liking or reposting things doesn't always mean agreeing either.

On the other hand - sometimes it does become clear that someone is unsuitable for a political job

Yes, I think that is sensible for any vacancy.

If someone is consistently making public remarks or through some other action indicates how they think, what they support then as a political party you can see it would be silly not to take that into account.

I've like remarks people have made on facebook (I'm not on twitter) whithout taking the time to go to their home page and seeing what else they have said and done in the past.

its obvious that on any number of issues people with very different politics may have a shared view on a current situation. ie a lot of people with no politics or varied politics are sympathetic concerned about the devastation in Gaza. That doesn't mean they are anti semitic, or anti Israel. They are just horrified at the level of violence being inflicted.