Faiza Shaheen, blocked from running in Chingford and Woodford Green, plans to challenge her deselection in court. Shaheen, an academic specialising in inequality, claims that the Labour Party has a “problem with black and brown people” and alleges she faced a systematic campaign of racism, Islamophobia, and bullying.
Shaheen’s allegations include the removal of a local organiser from her team and being stopped from producing videos about inflation. She believes these incidents demonstrate the party’s bias against minority members. “This campaign of prejudice, bullying and spiteful behaviour has finally been rewarded by Labour’s NEC [national executive committee] and my name has been added to the list of those not welcome in the candidate club. And it is no surprise that many of those excluded are people of colour,” she said in a statement.
Shaheen received only five and a half hours’ notice for the NEC panel meeting about her social media activity, which she attended while caring for her baby and suffering from mastitis. During the meeting, she was confronted with a dossier of liked posts on X, some dating back to 2014, with the most recent prompting a complaint from the Jewish Labour Movement.
On BBC Newsnight, Shaheen explained she did not recall liking the tweet in question as it was during the middle of the night while breastfeeding. She was officially notified of her exclusion via email after the news had already been reported in the media.
Diane Abbott, who also faces potential exclusion from standing for Labour again, condemned the party’s treatment of Shaheen, calling it “appalling” and questioned the exclusion of left-wing candidates. Meanwhile, Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury Darren Jones refuted claims of factional decisions, stating that many left-wing Labour members continue to be endorsed as candidates in their constituencies.
