Jeremy Corbyn says Sir Keir Starmer is ‘clearly intervening’ in ‘purge’ of left-wing Labour candidates | Politics News

The left are finding out the hard way about Starmer’s distancing from 2019

Jeremy Corbyn is a figure that has loomed large in this general election campaign – even though he’s not been a Labour MP or even in the party at all for some time.

The Conservatives have always tried to align the current Labour leader, Sir Keir Starmer, to his predecessor in an attempt to conflate their politics.

But the Labour Party is doing all it can to distance itself from the days of 2019 – and members of the Labour left are finding that out the hard way.

Last night, those on the left of the party accused Starmer of a “purge” of left-wing candidates, after a sweep of nominees, who had already begun campaigning in what they’d hoped to be their constituencies, were told they could no longer run for the party.

Faiza Shaheen told me she thought this was not because of any tweets she’d liked, but because of her views on the conflict in Gaza.

Jeremy Corbyn told me he doesn’t think the Labour Party looks like a broad church anymore and instead it’s a party that only holds “centrist opinions” – and he sees this “purge” as going against anyone with a dissenting opinion.

Sir Keir said today he is not blocking left-wing candidates – he simply wants the “highest quality candidates” in this election.

But it’s that comment that has filled many candidates with hot rage. One former senior Labour adviser spoke of the leadership as “little boys drunk on power” – and others are personally offended by what they understand as a personal offence against their character.

They think it doesn’t matter about optics because they think the leadership want a fight – they believe the strategy is to look tough on ‘radical’ voices.

But Faiza Shaheen has been public about the disproportionate number of people of colour who have been affected by the decisions of last night and worries about what it tells voters. “This is not the message Labour should be sending to Black and brown voters,” she says.

Others who experienced the purge themselves called Faiza Shaheen’s situation a “stitch up” and others have told me the leadership have been hauling in outgoing MPs who have been critical of the leadership for meetings with the leader’s office.

Whether this is a concerted strategy or just the culmination of the selection process, the left now believe they know – in the eyes of the newly charged Labour Party – exactly where they stand.