Islamophobia
Labour loses half its support among Muslims who voted Labour in 2019
Support for Greens surges
Support for Labour has collapsed among Muslim voters according to a new poll commissioned by the Labour Muslim Network (LMN), with a huge majority citing Keir Starmer’s support for Israeli genocide as a decisive factor.
In the 2019 general election, 86% of Muslims voted Labour – but that has now dropped to 43%. 85% of those surveyed said that Palestine was either very important (70%) or somewhat important (15%) in deciding how they will vote at the next general election. The poll showed support among Muslims for the Greens, who have made clear calls for an end to the slaughter in Gaza, has rocketed by 900%.
LMN has repeatedly identified huge issues with the rampant Islamophobia in the party under Starmer and reported in 2022, long before Israel’s genocidal assault in Gaza, that more than two thirds of Muslims don’t trust Labour to sort out its anti-Muslim bigotry. The group said of the latest survey results:
For decades the Muslim community has been amongst the most loyal Labour supporters anywhere in the United Kingdom. The findings of this new opinion poll shows a startling collapse of this electoral and communal relationship.
This is a crisis point for the future of the relationship between the British Muslim community and the Labour Party.
These findings come in the context of over 100 days of Israel’s continuous assault on Gaza. Over 25,000 Palestinians have been killed, more than 10,000 of whom are children, and the Labour Party’s response has been unacceptable and deeply offensive to Muslims across Britain. Muslim voters have been watching and are now sending a clear message – they will not support any political party that does not fervently oppose the crimes committed against the people of Gaza.
The Labour leadership must change paths now or risk losing the support of the Muslim community for a generation.
There is no sign of anything but token attempts to camouflage the contempt of Starmer and his faction for Muslims, while their support for Israel’s war crimes appears absolute.
The most astonishing thing in the survey is that Labour voting intention among Muslims has not disappeared entirely. It would surely do so if Muslims had a clear alternative, instead of the two main parties being one group with two rosette colours.
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Protest planned in Tottenham as location of Starmer’s latest ‘pledge’ leaks
Starmer’s ‘equality’ promise is a farce after years of unpunished racism in the Labour right – and Starmer’s support for Israel’s genocide
Keir Starmer and local MP David Lammy will appear in Tottenham between 1pm and 3pm on Monday for what is expected to be Starmer’s announcement of his latest ‘pledge’ – this one promising equal pay protection for ethnic minority groups.
Starmer’s record shows that any ‘promise’ will be worth nothing and jettisoned as soon as convenient – but his decision to stage his blether in one of London’s most diverse boroughs, while he continues to support Israel’s genocide in Gaza and has not even mentioned the International Court of Justice’s binding orders on Israel to stop the slaughter, has prompted outrage and a planned protest:
Starmer’s regime has constantly ignored racism, misogyny and abuse from the right-wing faction that has destroyed the party as a meaningful opposition, often protecting alleged perpetrators – even paedophiles – and covering up even the most serious allegations, while doing nothing to act against perpetrators exposed by the Forde Report. His latest disposable pledge is clearly a feeble attempt to con diverse groups that he cares a jot about their best interests – and his decision to hold it at the centre named after Labour’s first Black MP, who would no doubt have regarded him with contempt, adds insult to injury.
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Video: Webbe challenges govt over support for Israel already flouting ICJ ruling. Meaningless reply
Leicester East MP continues strong record on Gaza and Palestinians, challenging government to say what it is doing to obey ICJ when Israel is already murdering hundreds more civilians – and government continues abject collusion
Leicester East MP Claudia Webbe has been one of the few MPs to stand up strongly for Palestinians and to challenge the government over its complicity in Israel’s genocide and other war crimes in Gaza. In Parliament today, during urgent questions, she asked the Tories what they are doing to protect Palestinians when Israel is already killing hundreds of Palestinians a day and intensifying its genocidal incitement despite the International Court of Justice’s (ICJ) explicit order to take every measure to prevent them being killed.
The answer was utter, meaningless platitudes:
In fact, the UK continues to aid and abet Israel in its wanton slaughter of innocent Palestinians and to impede the arrival of desperately needed food, fuel and medical supplies – while attempting to accelerate then death rate from hunger and disease still further by smearing the UN relief agency UNRWA. The UK, like the US, has cut off its funding to the vital relief organisation on which millions of desperate Palestinians are relying, despite Israel’s long record of blatant and already-discredited lies to excuse its actions – and the prospect of a change of government sometime this year promises more of the same, as so-called ‘Labour leader’ Keir Starmer is just Pavlovian in his support for the apartheid colonisers.
Few MPs bothered even to turn up to the ‘urgent question’ session.
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Event: ‘Never Again Must Never Again Be Used to Justify Genocide’
Register for this webinar here. An organiser wrote:
The slogan Never Again symbolised the determination of anti-fascists and the labour movement that after the Holocaust, genocide must never happen again – that no one should be annihilated because of an accident of birth and who they are.
Six million Jews, a million Gypsy Roma, half a million mentally and physically disabled, to say nothing of the millions of prisoners of war, Poles, Russians and other people who were exterminated by the nazis between 1939 and 1945.
Zionism however drew different conclusions from the Holocaust. As Professor Yehuda Elkana, a child survivor of Auschwitz and the Rector of the Central European University wrote in Ha’aretz, in ‘The Need to Forget’ in 1988:
a profound existential “Angst” fed by a particular interpretation of the lessons of the holocaust … that we are the eternal victim (arose). In this ancient belief… I see the tragic and paradoxical victory of Hitler. Two nations, metaphorically speaking, emerged from the ashes of Auschwitz: a minority who assert, “this must never happen again,” and a frightened and haunted majority who assert, “this must never happen to us again.”
The Holocaust played an important part in the establishment of the State of Israel yet it was because of the Nakba, the expulsion of three-quarters of a million Palestinians from their homeland, that a Jewish State was formed. A series of massacres accompanied the Nakba which were aimed at ‘encouraging’ the flight of the Palestinian refugees.
In our Public Meeting we not only have Professor Ilan Pappe, the foremost historian of the Nakba, who has written The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine but Ghada Kharmi, a British Palestinian doctor who was expelled by the Zionist militias in 1948 from her home in Jerusalem.
Also speaking are Stephen Kapos and Suzanna Weiss, two child survivors of the Holocaust who were hidden from the fascists in Budapest and France, along with Tony Greenstein who has written Zionism During the Holocaust .
Holocaust Memorial Day Meeting
Saturday 27 January 7 pm
Never Again Must Never Again Be Used to Justify Genocide
Register in advance for this webinar here. Event details are here.
Activists labelling Israeli supermarket items as ‘apartheid’ and ‘apartheid Starmer’
Hum(our)ous and deadly serious
Activists have begun labelling Israeli items in supermarkets as ‘apartheid’ products, in a campaign to raise public awareness of Israel’s crimes against Palestinians and promote the peaceful ‘BDS’ (boycott, divestment and sanctions) movement to pressure Israel into ending its apartheid and war crimes – with different versions laid out to match (at least) Sainsburys and Tesco label layouts:
And Keir Starmer has also made himself a target of the campaign for his unstinting support of Israel’s flagrant breaches of international law, after at least one group took the original labels and edited them to reflect his ties to and funding from right-wing and pro-Israel groups and figures, before applying them liberally to supermarket shelves:
The global BDS campaign’s effectiveness can be seen in the fact that Israel created a whole ‘Ministry of Strategic Affairs’ to combat it and the way that Israel’s supporters constantly attack it. The UK government is in the process of passing probably-unlawful legislation to ban local authorities from applying BDS against goods and services from illegally-occupied territories.
The campaign has also been deployed against global brands such as Starbucks and McDonalds, with reportedly substantial impact on their profits.
Israel’s genocidal campaign in Gaza has so far killed at least 33,000 civilians, mostly women and children, and wounded more than twice that number of people – often with life-changing injuries. The country is facing a genocide case brought against it before the International Court of Justice by South Africa.
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Palestine Action activist remanded to prison after Stock Exchange arrests
Anti-war activist Sean Middleborough
Palestine Action activist Sean Middleborough was remanded to prison yesterday following his arrest on Sunday morning over an alleged plan to disrupt business at the London Stock Exchange (LSE), charged with ‘conspiracy to commit public nuisance’ under the draconian Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022, after appearing at Wirral Magistrates Court. Five other activists were released from police custody without charges pending further investigation.
On his way into the custody van, Middlebrough was heard to shout “Free Palestine”. Lawyers will be submitting an application for immediate granting of bail.
Middleborough and five other activists are accused of having planned to blockade the LSE, which through its trading in bonds and shares plays a significant role in facilitating the occupation of Palestine. The LSE has raised over over £4.73 billion in bond sales for the apartheid state of Israel in the past six years. The exchange describes itself as “a key partner to Israeli businesses, by enabling them to raise capital internationally” and trades shares in weapons manufacturers arming Israel’s regime.
A meeting on 8 February 2022 between UK government and Israeli investors, which included representatives from Israeli weapons companies Elbit Systems and Rafael, noted that “The London Stock Exchange has a strong and important relationship with Israel”. This includes the LSE holding capital market conferences in Israel and hosting Israeli business on the exchange with a combined market capital of $14.7 billion.
The arrests came after a Daily Express ‘journalist’ spied on the group in order to report on activities and hand information on alleged plans to the police. Most of the UK press and broadcast media have ignored Israel’s crimes and worked to manufacture consent for its ongoing genocide of Palestinians, which so far has killed almost 32,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, according to the latest Euro-Med Monitor report. If failing to report even the basic facts of Israel’s crimes – including against its own people on 7 October – wasn’t bad enough, ‘reporters’ have now gone as far as acting on behalf of the state to criminalise direct action movement opposing Israel’s war crimes.
The UK state has been taking ever more draconian measures to try to punish and deter activists who stand on the side of humanity and against genocide. Numerous activists seeking an end to bloodshed have found themselves detained by the British state and often charged, with varying levels of state success. Palestine Action has stated repeatedly that it will not be diverted from the struggle for Palestinian liberation and the ending of all UK arms production and shipments to apartheid Israel.
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Galloway makes ‘unity offer’ to Corbyn ‘to prevent socialist split’
George Galloway, left, at WPGB’s recent annual general meeting
Amid press speculation that Jeremy Corbyn may launch a new party or movement to challenge Starmer’s right wing, pro-Israel ‘Labour’ in this year’s general election, former Respect MP and pro-Palestine campaigner George Galloway is offering what insiders in his party are terming a ‘truce’ to Corbyn and his movement. Skwawkbox understands that Galloway is tabling a motion which, if passed, will raise the potential for Galloway and former Labour MP Chris Williamson’s Workers Party (WPGB) to cooperate with Corbyn’s project, in the hope of avoiding a split in the socialist vote at the General Election.
The motion will be tabled by Galloway at the party’s ‘Members Council’ in Birmingham on Saturday 20 January, reaffirming the party’s commitment to avoiding unnecessary electoral clashes with other left groups, a proposal the Workers Party originally put to TUSC (Trade Union and Socialist Coalition) in 2022 and which remains in place.
Keir Starmer’s extreme authoritarianism, commitment to expanding NHS privatisation and support for Israel’s genocidal policies make him as great a threat to the life and liberty of British people as the Tories – and many would argue greater.
Galloway’s supporters say the move is being made in the hope that a united socialist movement could dent Starmer’s chances of forming a majority at General Election 2024. According to the Labour right’s own workings, Starmer needs a 1997-scale swing from the Tories to secure a majority of 1 at the election. Starmer’s allies have also quietly admitted that they expect Labour to lose seats at the election over the issue of Palestine, while even mainstream pollsters are indicating that Labour’s “20 points ahead” lead is very likely to shrink, potentially thwarting Starmer’s hopes for a majority. Preventing a split amongst socialists could therefore prove decisive in stopping Starmer’s worrying and dishonest regime from taking power.
Previously, the best chance of ousting Starmer from the Labour leadership was in 2021’s Batley and Spen By Election, which was won by Starmer ally Kim Leadbetter by just three hundred votes after a disgracefully Islamophobic campaign. Leadbetter went on to vote against a ceasefire in Palestine during a parliamentary vote. Many in Labour’s left-leaning Socialist Campaign Group (SCG) chose to campaign for Leadbetter and Starmer’s victory. Had the result gone the other way, it’s likely that Starmer would have been forced out.
The Workers party is led by George Galloway, with former Labour MP Chris Williamson, Aslef Vice President Andy Hudd, and former Ambassador Peter Ford acting as Deputy Leaders. The party has announced its intention to stand in up to 50 seats in the forthcoming General Election. Galloway is the party candidate in the 2024 London Mayoral contest.
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Exclusive: how the Poplar and Limehouse trigger ballot was rigged against Apsana Begum
Allegations of irregularities become concrete example of branch fix that prevented Muslim woman MP being automatically selected to stand again
In 2022, Poplar and Limehouse’s left-wing Muslim woman MP Apsana Begum faced a ‘vicious and misogynistic’ campaign to deselect her that had left campaigners and women’s groups horrified.
The campaign followed a party attempt to remove Begum as the London constituency’s MP by prosecuting her for housing fraud. The stitch-up fell apart when a court threw out the charges brought by allies of her allegedly-abusive ex-husband – forcing Labour party vultures, who had been at the court in anticipation of a guilty verdict to announce a contest to replace her, to slink away disappointed and unable to install a favoured right-winger in the overwhelmingly Labour-voting seat.
After the ‘lawfare’ failed, Begum’s many supporters accused the party of gross abuse of process, of bullying and intimidation, and even of outright rigging in its determination to ‘trigger’ Begum and force her into a selection contest – and Begum was even threatened with ‘serious abuse’ by a relative of her ex.
Now Skwawkbox has received details from local members of one of the selection meetings demonstrating how the trigger vote was rigged – a vote that both exemplifies the stitch-up tactics and would have ensured Begum was selected again automatically had the party reacted and investigated properly. These can now be exposed and they corroborate earlier evidence at the time of the process.
Begum’s trigger ballot process started in May 2022, just after the local council elections – and from the start, locals say it was marred by blatant breaking of party rules.
Only an MP and her supporters are allowed to campaign during the process, and no-one is allowed to campaign as if they were an alternative candidate. Opponents of Begum who supported her being triggered completely ignored these rules. Many complaints were made to the party but were ignored.
The trigger ballot meeting for Lansbury and Poplar – a branch consisting of two wards combined – was the first of the CLP’s votes to be held, on 31st May 2022. A large group of people vocally supporting a vote to trigger Begum gathered outside the hall, telling people to vote for the trigger and giving out slips of paper with marked up dummy ballot papers to guide any unsure of the process, acts completely against party rules. Branch officials told these agitators that what they were doing was completely against the rules, but they refused to stop.
Inside the hall, the meeting was in uproar before it even began, with aggression and abuse by Begum’s opponents, who were even ‘yelling and jumping up and down and waving fists in the faces of branch officers’. Some went as far as openly demanding that Labour’s official protocol for the meeting be abandoned and to go straight to a vote, so they could – in as many words – ‘vote for the trigger and go home!’
At this point, a senior officer of the constituency-wide party (CLP) turned up at the meeting, despite having no official role there – Skwawkbox understands that several CLP officers are close to Begum’s ex-husband and determined to oust her.
As people were being ticked off the eligible voter list to ensure only those entitled to vote took part, several people arrived who were not on the list, fuelling the aggressive and intimidatory atmosphere as they demanded to be let in.
The CLP officer said they would check eligibility through their phone – and insisted that four extra people be allowed into the meeting and given ballot papers. Requests to clarify where this information came from were ignored.
When the vote was taken, the result was 43-43 – meaning that if the four pro-trigger voters were not eligible to vote, the real result would have been a victory for Begum by 43-39. This would have meant Begum won the required ten percent in the CLP section vote – which under Labour’s rules meant she had won the trigger process and would automatically stand again as Labour’s candidate in the next parliamentary election.
Labour ignored a string of complaints about this meeting and dismissed the few it responded to. But when the membership system was finally accessible again (after being out of action because of a hacking attack), branch members were able to confirm that the one extra ‘member’ allowed in by the CLP officer – the only one known personally to other members present – was not eligible to vote, because her membership had been confirmed well before the trigger meeting to have lapsed. There was no way she could have been on the CLP officer’s ‘list’.
The names of the other three names allowed in were written at the time on the master copy of the attendee list – but the CLP observer, also an opponent of Begum – insisted on taking it away with him. But even if they were bona fide members – which they were not because they appeared on no membership list – Begum still won the vote 43-42, and so would have automatically been selected to stand again.
Members have lodged multiple complaints about this abuse of process but have been ignored. Even if the other branch votes were held in perfect propriety – which goes against reports of the way they were conducted – the real result in Lansbury and Poplar was enough to select Begum uncontested.
Labour has been accused repeatedly, up and down the country, of rigging trigger and selection processes, sometimes successfully – for example in nearby Ilford South to remove incumbent Sam Tarry – and occasionally not, as when Liverpool West Derby MP Ian Byrne was able to fight off repeated attempts.
So bad has the party’s conduct been that even journalist Michael Crick – no left-winger – who runs the ‘tomorrowsmps’ Twitter account detailing the latest selection news has publicly voiced his own concerns about Labour’s rigging and abuse of its selection processes. Now the mechanism – or at least one of them – for rigging in Poplar and Limehouse to oust a popular left-wing MP has been laid bare by the evidence and the testimonies of locals.
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Government funding pro-Israel ‘charity’ to fight support for Palestinians in schools
‘Solutions not Sides’ literally ‘both-sidesing’ Israel’s occupation and ethnic cleansing – but has been linked to pro-Israel lobby and receives most funding from UK government and lobby groups
The UK government and pro-Israel lobby groups are funding a UK-registered charity to indoctrinate schoolchildren against recognition of Israel’s occupation and ethnic cleansing of Palestine.
‘Solutions not Sides’ (SNS) has received increasing amounts of cash to carry out literal ‘bothsidesing’ of the grossly asymmetrical situation in Palestine, treating Israel’s occupation, apartheid, oppression and now mass-murder of Palestinians as equivalent to Palestinian resistance.
The charity’s website claims to run a ‘non-partisan programme’ to ‘prepare students to make a positive, solutions-focused contribution to debates on Israel-Palestine’. However, its ‘Mission & Values’ page states that it opposes ‘advocacy’ and ‘partisan solidarity'(!) a value that rules out support for the Boycott Divestment and sanctions campaign, rejects ‘blame culture’ and believes that:
both sides bear responsibility for bringing about a resolution to the conflict.
Israel is currently engaged in mass slaughter of Palestinian civilians and is making plans for the deportation of Gazan Palestinians to Egypt, the Congo and other African destinations. It faces allegations brought before the International Court of Justice (ICJ) by South Africa of what experts consider to be a ‘textbook case’ of genocide. The victims of war crimes clearly do not ‘bear responsibility’ for ending the crimes – and minimising Israel’s guilt for its illegal actions and Palestinian suffering while treating Palestinians’ acts of resistance as equivalent is inherently partisan. In this context, the group’s claim to be fighting Islamophobia as well as antisemitism looks like mere window dressing.
According to Palestine is still the issue and 5Pillars, SNS has its origins in – and receives around thirty percent of its funding from – ‘One Voice’, a billionaire-funded pro-Israel lobby group. SNS has been backed by pro-Israel groups, as well as figures well-known from their eager participation in smears of the left.
An attempt by Palestine Declassified to visit the SNS office to obtain comment on analysis of SNS’s activities found that no one was based at the charity’s registered address. It did not respond to the programme’s requests for comment.
Campaigners are asking teachers and parents to complain to schools urgently if this group is brought in.
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Redbridge councillor quits Labour with blast at local and national leaders
Shannell Johnson leaves party in disgust at local conduct and threats – and national complicity in Gaza slaughter
Redbridge councillor Shannell Johnson
Labour has lost yet another councillor over the party’s Stalinism to its members and representatives of principle, its lack of meaningful action for good and its complicity in Israel’s genocide in Gaza – and its threats to try to force her to toe the Starmeroid line.
Cllr Shannell Johnson has resigned from the party with a withering blast at local and national ‘leadership’ and will continue to serve as an independent. She wrote to right-wing Labour council leader Jas Athwal with concerns that included accusing the leadership of fostering a ‘toxic’, ‘ego-centric’ culture of ‘gaslighting’:
Dear Cllr Athwal,
I trust this message finds you in good health following the festive season.
It is with a heavy heart and a profound sense of duty that I write to inform you of my decision to resign from the Labour Party. This decision comes after much reflection, on the time spent with the Redbridge Labour Group, on the National issues I feel strongly about, and on the disconnect between the party’s declared values and its actions. Particularly within the Redbridge Labour Group, I have witnessed and been subjected to things that make it hard for me to sleep at night.
Over the past 18 months, I have observed troubling trends within Redbridge Council Labour Group. The atmosphere has grown increasingly toxic, marked by a lack of openness and a discouraging environment for critical discussion. This shift towards unquestioning compliance has hindered effective governance and oversight, leaving us ill-prepared to address key challenges. Cabinet members put in place via email directions with everyone too fearful to question the lack of a democratic process.
However, my concerns extend beyond local issues. The party’s refusal to call for a ceasefire in Gaza is deeply troubling, in the last 82 days the death toll is now more than 30,000. This stance contradicts our professed commitment to peace and justice on an international scale, raising questions about our consistency and our moral compass.
Equally concerning is the Labour leadership’s failure to fully implement the recommendations of the Forde Report. This lack of action speaks volumes about our commitment to accountability, transparency, and internal reform. It undermines the trust and credibility we seek to build, both within our ranks and with the public.
Despite Labour’s strong position in the polls, the arrogance I have encountered, particularly in the Redbridge leadership, is disconcerting. The upcoming election represents a chance for a fresh start and a renewed commitment to listening. However, the current trend of negative campaigning directly contradicts my values.
The closure of Wanstead Youth Centre and displacement of services for under-represented groups exemplifies the leadership’s short-sighted decision-making. This centre played a crucial role in our community, and its closure, coupled with the leadership’s failure to engage with concerned stakeholders, is a misstep that cannot be overlooked.
I am also haunted by a specific incident where I felt my position was threatened for simply questioning the status quo. This event is emblematic of a deeper issue, as the example set is followed closely within our officer group. Characterised by manipulation, an ego-centric leadership style, and a reluctance to engage in genuine dialogue. Another example was two direct threats in the chamber regarding a planning application, unchallenged in the moment and even encouraged, representing a concerning overstep of advisory roles.
As if these examples were not enough, being chastised for daring to raise concerns about knife crime and request its inclusion in our policy development was a defining moment for me. It is here that I choose to stand my ground, guided by my values and integrity.
My attempts to address pressing issues, such as racism and public safety, were met with delays and inadequate responses. The leadership’s dismissive approach to these critical problems left me deeply disillusioned.
The culture of silos, cliques, and gaslighting within the group contradicts our stated values of teamwork and open dialogue. I have personally felt excluded and unsafe in committee settings, undermining the very purpose of my involvement.
The financial practices within the group have further compounded my disillusionment. My reluctance to continue financially supporting an organisation that lacks transparency and dismisses legitimate inquiries has solidified my decision.
After discussing with colleagues across London, it’s clear that the problems in Redbridge are symptomatic of a broader issue within the party. However, here in Redbridge Council it’s in overdrive as this top-down leadership approach prioritises personal political ambitions over collective progress and democratic principles that should underpin our actions.
In stepping down as a Labour member, I can act independently and I aim to uphold my commitment to questioning and exercising my rights without the constraints of the current team dynamic. This decision is not easy, as there are some very nice people I have grown to like and admire. I fully understand that my decision may provoke a range of reactions, so if you have read this far, I hold no ill feelings towards anyone. Quite the opposite, I wish everyone well on their individual journeys and genuinely wish you all the best for 2024 and beyond.
The world needs love, compassion for all humanity, and care for fellow citizens. My conscience dictates that I must stand firm in my principles of peace and love. So thank you for the experiences and the lessons learned.
Athwal, who is close to the appalling right-wing local MP Wes Streeting, is Labour’s candidate in the neighbouring Ilford South seat. He was selected after complaints of ‘serious sexual assault’ were dismissed by a committee of Labour national executive members – against the advice of the party’s barrister – and won the selection vote when six hundred postal votes ‘turned up’ late in proceedings, while supporters of his opponent, incumbent MP Sam Tarry, were denied entry to the selection meeting. Labour general secretary David Evans dismissed the evidence as ‘irrelevant to the result.
Labour under Keir Starmer has a record of promoting and protecting candidates despite grave allegations – and has been repeatedly accused of anti-Black racism, including blocking Black candidates from standing, anti-Gypsy racism and Islamophobia.
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