She was blocked from being a Labour candidate
Faiza Shaheen has resigned her membership of the Labour Party. She announced her decision on Twitter/X today.
Shaheen was until last week the Labour Party’s candidate in Chingford and Woodford Green. However, she was blocked from standing by a panel of the party’s National Executive Committee.
In her statement, Shaheen said: “Since the Conservatives won power in 2010, I have used all the tools available to me – from my research to my activism – to fight them on public spending cuts, inequality and divisive narratives. That is why to leave the Labour Party now, on the cusp of finally seeing the Tories out of government at and a time when I should be celebrating, is crushing.”
Shaheen added that she was dropped as a candidate through a “sham process” and for “spurious reasons”.
She went on to say: “Being removed as a candidate has been cruel and devastating, especially after local voters and party members have placed so much faith in me,” later adding: “I cannot, in all conscience, continue to contribute to a party that seems to think so little of people like me and has moved so far away from my values.”
At the end of her statement, Shaheen said she will be making an announcement about her next steps tomorrow. There have been suggestions that she may chose to stand as an independent.
Following her announcement, the Muslim Association of Britain said that her treatment by the Labour Party was “abhorrent and Islamophobic”.
A spokesperson for Labour’s left wing faction Momentum said: “Once again, Keir Starmer’s hyper-factional war on the Left has created an almighty mess for Labour. In Faiza Shaheen Labour had a respected, popular, local candidate democratically selected by local party members. But instead of supporting her, Starmer’s allies decided to purge this campaigner against inequality on spurious grounds and parachute in one of their own clique from outside the constituency.
“Outrageously, the grounds cited to block Faiza included her discussion of her own experiences of Islamophobia within the party, in a textbook case of institutional racism. Whatever comes next, Keir Starmer owns it.”
More to follow…
Chris Jarvis is head of strategy and development at Left Foot Forward
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