A former parliamentary candidate who was dropped and replaced for the July 4 general election has quit the Labour Party, but Sir Keir Starmer told broadcasters on Tuesday there were “brilliant Labour teams out in every constituency, fighting for votes in this general election.”
Faiza Shaheen, who stood in Chingford and Woodford Green against former Conservative Party leader Iain Duncan Smith in 2019, published a statement on social media platform X in which she said, “My removal shows that the desires of local members and my community means nothing to the people at the top of the party.”
She is one of a number of candidates who have been deselected, suspended, or encouraged to retire—amid speculation about future peerages for some of those who are voluntarily standing down—in order to make way for a cohort who might be expected to be more loyal to Sir Keir.
So who has been chosen?
Shama Tatler, who is a councillor in the London Borough of Brent, has replaced Ms. Shaheen, who was deselected over comments she made on social media which allegedly played down claims of anti-Semitism.
Iain Duncan Smith’s Seat Is a Top Target
Nominations for the general election close on Friday and Ms. Shaheen is believed to be considering whether to put herself forward as an independent candidate in Chingford and Woodford Green, where Mr. Duncan Smith, 70, had a majority of 1,262 in 2019.It is 10th on the list of Labour’s target seats and would require a swing of only 1.47 percent for the Tories to lose it.
A Labour spokesman said, “We are focused on electing a Labour government and delivering the change that people in Chingford and Woodford Green and across the country need.”
Another controversial deselection was in Brighton Kemptown, where the Labour MP, Lloyd Russell-Moyle, was suspended last week.
Mr. Russell-Moyle, who had been a strong supporter of Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership, said, “Someone (who remains anonymous to me) has made what I believe to be a vexatious and politically motivated complaint about my behaviour eight years ago.”
“This is a false allegation that I dispute totally and I believe it was designed to disrupt this election,” he added.
Chris Ward, who worked as an adviser to Sir Keir for six years, was then imposed on Brighton Kemptown as their candidate.
Was Candidate Chosen Before Rival’s Online Interview Over?
Ms. Platts told Labour List on Friday, “Everything moved very quickly yesterday and I was pleased to be offered an online interview at 2:40 p.m. It was disappointing afterwards to find out that, during my interview, Michael Crick had tweeted out that Chris Ward would be the successful candidate.”In Cardiff West, Kevin Brennan—who had been the MP for 23 years but underwent surgery for prostate cancer in 2022—stood down on May 27 and Alex Barros-Curtis, Labour’s legal chief of legal affairs, was chosen by the party leadership as the candidate on May 31.
Cardiff Candidate ‘Imposed by Fiat’
Welsh Labour Grassroots, a left-wing group, said, “We understand that many candidates applied with no interviews given, and Mr. Barros-Curtis was imposed by fiat of a few party officials.”“A statement that, like his 10 pledges, lies torn up and forgotten on the pile of broken promises,” they added.
Mr. Davies wrote on X, “Having been suspended a year ago, following anonymous allegations posted in the media, I am disappointed that I am yet to have a Labour Party hearing and the opportunity to clear my name.”
Several NEC members were also parachuted into safe seats.
Mr. Spellar, who is now 76, had a majority of 11,511 in 2019 although the constituency boundaries have changed slightly.
James Asser, the chair of the NEC, is set to replace Lyn Brown in West Ham and Beckton.
Luke Akehurst Picked for Red Wall Seat
Luke Akehurst—who joined the NEC in 2022 and last year wrote an article explaining why he had voted to block Mr. Corbyn being a candidate at the election—has been chosen as the candidate in North Durham, replacing the retiring Kevan Jones.North Durham is a Red Wall seat where pro-Brexit sentiment pushed the Labour majority down from 12,939 in 2017 to 4,742 in 2019.
On his website, Mr. Jones explained why he was not standing, saying, “In early June I will be undergoing surgery and treatment for an ongoing condition, which would make it impossible for me to fight the campaign that I and my constituents would expect me to do so.”
Another long-standing MP who has made way for a younger candidate is John Cryer, who was first elected in 1997 but lost his seat in Hornchurch in 2005, only to win neighbouring Leyton and Wanstead in 2010.
The new candidate is Calvin Bailey, an RAF officer who served in Afghanistan, and who is close to shadow health secretary Wes Streeting.
There were two other late picks in England’s second city.
Laurence Turner, who has worked for the GMB trade union since 2017, is the new candidate in Birmingham Northfield, a seat Labour lost in 2019 but which would only need a 1.68 percent swing to win back.
Alistair Carns, a former Royal Marine colonel, who was awarded the Military Cross while serving in Afghanistan, is the new candidate in Birmingham Selly Oak, a seat Labour has held since 1992 and had a majority of over 12,000 in 2019.
Uma Kumaran, who used to work in Sir Keir’s office, has also been gifted the new and ultra-safe seat of Stratford and Bow in east London.
Elsewhere Lewis Atkinson, an NHS manager, has been hand-picked to replace Julie Elliott, 60, in Sunderland Central, which is traditionally the first seat in the country to declare a result on election night.
Mark Ferguson, who represents the Unison trade union on the NEC, is set to become the new Labour MP in Gateshead Central and Whickham. He replaces Ian Mearns, 67, who is standing down after 14 years.
Former Rachel Reeves Adviser Picked in Swing Seat
Other key appointments are Heather Iqbal, a former adviser to shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves, who has been selected in Dewsbury and Batley, a new constituency partly carved out of the Dewsbury seat, which the Tories gained from Labour in 2019.Josh Simons, the director of the Labour Together think tank—which has been very supportive of Sir Keir—replaced the retiring Yvonne Fovargue, 67, in Makerfield.
Georgia Gould, the leader of Camden council—which is the local authority in Sir Keir’s Holborn and St. Pancras constituency—and daughter of Lord Philip Gould, a former strategist who worked for Sir Tony Blair, has replaced Karen Buck, 65, in Queens Park and Maida Vale (formerly Westminster North).
Kate Dearden, who was head of research, policy, and external relations with the Community trade union, was allotted the seat in Halifax on May 28.
Deirdre Costigan, an official with the Unison trade union and deputy leader of Ealing Council, was selected in Ealing Southall, replacing 77-year-old Virendra Sharma, who has been tipped for a seat in the House of Lords.
Finally, on Tuesday night, the leader of Enfield Council, Nesil Caliskan, was chosen by the leadership to be the new candidate in Barking, replacing outgoing Margaret Hodge, 79, who is retiring after years of campaigning against racism and anti-Semitism.
Political journalist Michael Crick posted on his Tomorrow’s MPs account on X, “Amazingly, Nesil Caliskan is also a member of the Labour Party National Executive Committee [NEC], representing Labour councils.”
He added, “She’s the sixth Labour NEC member to be given a safe seat in the last week - given by fellow NEC members, not by local party members!”
