UK Labour’s fight with the left risks spinning out of control

LONDON — There were plenty of people in Labour headquarters on Tuesday quietly pleased with the row engulfing the U.K. opposition party over its treatment of veteran left-winger Diane Abbott.

This was not in spite of the headlines about Abbott being barred from standing as a Labour candidate in next month’s general election — but because of them.

Party officials thought it showed Starmer — on course to be prime minister on current polling — as a strong leader.

They felt beefing with the left, again, would ram home the message that Labour had changed since the reign of Jeremy Corbyn, under whom the party sank to its worst election defeat since the 1930s.

What better way to demonstrate that change to voters — now actually listening to Labour during the campaign — than by purging one of Corbyn’s closest comrades?

But 48 hours on and the behind-the-scenes battle over the former frontbencher’s fate risks spinning out of the control of Labour’s high command.

Labour had changed since Jeremy Corbyn’s tenure, during which the party suffered its worst electoral setback since the 1930s. | Justin Tallis/AFP via Getty Images

Abbott, who was under investigation for months over a controversial article on Jewish people’s experience of racism, spoke at a rally in her seat of Hackney North and Stoke Newington Wednesday night and vowed to stand again whatever party top brass decides. Corbyn, long barred over his response to a report on Labour’s handling of antisemitism, is already running against the party he once led as an independent candidate.

Allies rewarded

The row escalated Wednesday night as the Labour machine moved to de-select two other staunch left-wingers from standing in winnable or safe Labour seats, with both Lloyd Russell-Moyle and Faiza Shaheen facing disciplinary action which that under party rules they will be unable to contest before the election takes place, invalidating them from standing.

Shaheen is now consulting her lawyers over the decision and gave an emotional television interview Wednesday accusing the party of a purge, and saying it had informed her of her fate via email.

Labour are streets ahead in the polls, but for days the internal row has dominated the U.K. news cycle.

A host of loyal Starmerites — consisting of aides, think tankers and well-known campaigners allied to the leadership — have also being inserted into safe Labour seats on Wednesday night. It shows just how keen the Labour leader’s team are to reshape the parliamentary party in Starmer’s image.

Included in the group was Josh Simons, close ally of Labour campaign chief Morgan McSweeney, who is now tipped to have a role in any future Starmer government from the seat he’s been handed in Makerfield. There’s also Luke Akehurst, a Starmer ally who spearheaded numerous attacks on Corbyn’s leadership, who’s been given the Labour-held North Durham seat.

The row is now beginning to to distract from the party’s core message — with a flurry of releases on the National Health Service and tackling crime playing second fiddle in the past 48 hours.

It’s also given the Westminster press corp a sniff of some actual news, after a week of manufactured press opportunities and staid Q&A sessions from all major parties.

A Labour politician close to the leader’s office said the row was a “necessary break with the past” — but blamed the furore squarely on the Corbynite left.

“The selection row has been engineered by Diane and her supporters,” they said. “It has always been this with her and them.”

Others see it differently. The pro-Corbyn Momentum campaign group accused Starmer’s team of “purging left-wingers for the crime of believing in causes like public ownership and anti-racism.”

As of Thursday night, there are signs Labour may fold and let Abbott stand, with a crucial meeting of its ruling executive set to meet.

There were conciliatory statements on Thursday from both Starmer and his deputy Angela Rayner, who is seen as closer to the Labour left and the trade unions which back the party.

Starmer said Abbott, Britain’s first ever Black female MP, was “a trailblazer.”

Rayner went further and even said: “I don’t see any reason why Diane Abbott can’t stand as a Labour MP going forward.”

If Abbott’s candidacy now does get the go-ahead despite the factional fight, Labour will have handed the Tories a neatly packaged attack line, while also failing to demonstrate a mastery over the Corbynite left.

Expect to hear Rishi Sunak, hoping to stay on as prime minister on July 4, trot out the “same old Labour” attack line if so — and for his team to claim Starmer is not strong enough to stand up to his party.

The Tories are trying everything they can in a desperate rush to make something stick to the Labour leader.

This week’s battle may have just handed them a wrench.