Every social democratic party needs its rebellious internal voices to avoid going over the line in the inevitable journey towards the center. Keir Starmer’s obsession with eradicating any trace of the time of his predecessor, Jeremy Corbyn, has ended up turning against him, and even bothering his current team. In the last few hours, a handful of candidates from the left wing of the party – many of them from the corbyinism— have received the message that they are no longer counted on, and the voices of protest within the Labor Party have multiplied.
The most painful case has been that of Diane Abbot (London, 70 years old). The first black woman to enter the Westminster Parliament as an MP, in 1987, announced in the middle of this week that the party leadership had informed her that she would not repeat as a candidate for her longtime electoral constituency, Hackney North and Stoke Newington. in the north of the capital.
She had already been suspended as a member of the parliamentary group for months and was under investigation, after statements in which she assured that “Jews, Irish and Gypsies [travellers, o nómadas, es como se les llama en el Reino Unido] “They do not suffer racism in the United Kingdom, but rather they are victims of prejudice.” Aware that he had let himself be carried away by his intense fight against the racism he suffered firsthand, Abbot later apologized for his words. It was late. Starmer’s obsession with eradicating any vestige of anti-Semitism in his training – which had been tolerated in the Corbyn era – left no room for nuance, and also served to make a clear point and apart from the previous leadership. Corbyn himself ended up being expelled from the Labor Party.
Although Abbot had just been readmitted to the parliamentary group this week – with a general election called, and the session of Parliament practically concluded – Starmer’s team did not want her as a candidate.
“I demand that Abbot be treated with the respect he deserves,” protested the mayor of London, Sadiq Khan. “Seeing her as a deputy in 1987 had an enormous positive effect on me,” he recalled. “Personally, I would like Abbot to return to being an MP in the Labor Parliamentary Group, although I understand that the party must comply with the established processes,” said Angela Rayner, the number two of the party. Yvette Cooper, Labor spokesperson for the Interior, also defined Abbot as a “pioneer” and demanded that she continue as a candidate.
Such has been the pressure of the last few hours that Starmer was forced to publicly deny that the decision had been made to withdraw Abbot as a candidate. Shortly after, the politician gathered hundreds of her followers in a public event to become strong and promise that she would continue fighting to repeat as a representative on July 4, when the polls are called.
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The internal current Momentumlocated on the left wing of the party and which was instrumental in propelling Corbyn to the leadership, has accused Starmer of carrying out a “purge” of candidates, in his obsession with presenting voters with a moderate Labor Party, in imitation of the New Labor with which Tony Blair won an overwhelming victory in 1997. Abbot was, by the way, one of the most critical voices of Blair, especially in his hand-in-hand adventure with George W. Bush, when participating in the invasion of Iraq.
At the same time that attempts to remove Abbot from the electoral race came to light, it was known that two other candidates had been replaced by people more loyal to the current leadership. Faiza Shaheen, a 41-year-old economist specializing in studies of inequality in the Chingford constituency, has announced that she will fight its withdrawal in court. Shaheen was prosecuted for liking a series of tweets on Although she also apologized, it was too late for her too.
“I have come to the inevitable conclusion that the Labor Party, far from being a formation in which all tendencies have a place, has a culture of harassment towards black or dark-skinned people,” Shaheen accused the leadership led by Starmer. The candidate was fighting for the seat currently occupied by the conservative Ian Duncan-Smith, who once became the leader of the tories.
“Instead of showing unity to defeat Duncan-Smith and take the seat from her, the Starmer team seems more interested in purging a Muslim woman from the lists,” he said. Momentum it’s a statement.
In addition to Shaheen, another candidate – who had already been a deputy and aspired to repeat – has been removed: Lloyd Russell-Moyle is being investigated for a series of internal complaints against his attitude, which he has described as humiliating, which occurred eight years ago. “The party takes any complaints of this type extremely seriously, and investigates them in accordance with internal rules and procedures,” the Labor leadership has said, without revealing the content of the complaint. Russell-Moyle is part of the Socialist Campaign Group, an internal current of Labour’s left wing. He was loyal to Corbyn until the end, he was accused of anti-Semitism when, at the head of the coalition Stop The Warinvited Ahmed Alshami, representative of the Houthis fighting in Yemen, who in recent months have attacked several boats in the Red Sea heading towards Israel, to speak in Parliament.
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