Is the UK’s traditionally left-wing Labour Party on a ‘rightward’ path?
Al Jazeera
Labour’s leader Keir Starmer has been accused of purging left-wing members of his party ahead of the general election.
Glasgow, United Kingdom – It has been beset by bitter resignations, selection disputes and accusations of institutional racism – but Britain’s main opposition party remains on course for a landslide victory in next month’s general election.
After 14 years of playing second fiddle to the ruling right-wing Conservatives, and after four chastening general election defeats, the Labour Party is today on the cusp of power, with some polls suggesting that it could win a 100-plus seat majority on July 4.
However, if Labour, led for the past four years by former Director of Public Prosecutions, Sir Keir Starmer, does realise a return to government for the first time since 2010, then it will do so having left a trail of unwelcome headlines in its wake.
Last week, Faiza Shaheen, Labour’s left-wing Muslim candidate for Chingford and Woodford Green in northeast London, revealed that she had been de-selected by the party’s national executive committee (NEC) after it took issue with her social media posts, including one which saw her like a 2014 The Daily Show sketch on the discourse surrounding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Lloyd Russell-Moyle, the left-wing Labour candidate for Brighton Kemptown, was also de-selected last week.
