UK
Blocked Labour candidate Faiza Shaheen confirms she will stand as independent
Sky News
Wed, 5 June 2024
Faiza Shaheen, who was blocked from representing the Labour Party in the general election, has announced she will stand as an independent.
Ms Shaheen, who initially won the Labour nomination for Chingford and Woodford Green, was dropped as a candidate for the London constituency after she allegedly liked a series of social media posts that downplayed antisemitism accusations.
Yesterday she announced she had resigned from Labour, whom she accused of embodying a "hierarchy of racism".
She said she was weighing up whether to stand as an independent in Chingford, and on Wednesday afternoon, confirmed that decision.
In a post on social media, she said voters in her constituency felt "disenfranchised by Labour's decision to remove me", adding: "I feel it would be impossible for the party to win here without a local candidate, rooted in the community, and that such a voice is vitally needed."
Former Labour candidate Faiza Shaheen announces independent run for parliament
Former Labour candidate Faiza Shaheen, who was barred from standing following a probe into her social media use, has announced she will run as an independent in the general election.
Shaheen, who was due to stand for Labour in Chingford and Woodford Green, yesterday announced her resignation from the party claiming she had faced “unfair treatment”.
She has now announced her bid to stand in the same constituency as an independent.
In a statement posted on social media, she said: “I am standing here to win, to beat the Conservatives, to finish what we started.
“I am standing to give a voice to my community – the community that made me and put their faith in me.”
READ MORE: Shaheen: Deselection shows members ‘mean nothing’ as she quits Labour
Chingford and Woodford Green in north London is the constituency of former Conservative Party leader Iain Duncan Smith – but is widely seen as a target for Labour.
Shaheen contested the seat for the party in 2019, coming within three percentage points of beating Duncan Smith.
She posted on X (formerly Twitter): “On July 4, Chingford and Woodford Green faces a simple choice. Change with Labour, or five more years of Tory failure and chaos.
“We need less rhetoric, and more results. Time to get on with the job.”
A Labour spokesperson previously told LabourList regarding their candidate selections: “We have selected a fantastic group of candidates in place for the General Election on Thursday 4 July.
“They will be campaigning across the country to bring Labour’s message of change to voters.
Now Faiza Shaheen resigns from Labour
“Former Labour candidate Faiza Shaheen, who was barred from standing for Chingford and Woodford Green last week, has resigned from the party,” reports Labour List. “In a statement posted on social media, Shaheen described her deselection as ‘cruel and devastating’ and claimed she had face ‘unfair treatment’ by the party.”
“Just two days after learning of my removal, Labour imposed a new candidate, someone not known or supported by most local members with no links to our community,” Faiza Shaheen said in her resignation statement. “Today’s national executive committee was the last chance for the party to recognise its mistake. Unfortunately it failed to do so.”
Her statement concludes: “I will be deciding my next steps and will make an announcement tomorrow.” It can be read in full here.
Earlier today, seven Slough councillors were reported to have resigned from the Party over the treatment of Diane Abbott and Faiza Shaheen and the Party’s position on Gaza. The councillors at Slough Borough Council said arguments over whether the Abbott and Shaheen could stand for election highlighted “institutional racism” in Labour.
Responding to Faiza Shaheen’s resignation, a Momentum spokesperson 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.”
The group tweeted: “Labour looked set to win this seat off the Tories, replacing Iain Duncan Smith with a respected campaigner on inequality, a popular local candidate. But once again, Party came before country for Team Starmer.”
Today’s National Executive Committee did, however, endorse Diane Abbott, following a huge campaign in her support, which forced an important climbdown from Labour’s leadership. Others on the left, who many feared might be blocked unfairly by the leadership, were also endorsed, notably Apsana Begum, who was confirmed as Labour candidate for Poplar and Limehouse after local members wrote to the NEC yesterday demanding the Party confirm her candidacy.
JUNE 4, 2024Image: Faiza Shaheen. Author: FromMorningToMidnight, licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license.
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