Keir Starmer has added racist undertones to his purge of Labour election candidates.

Consider:

Here’s the news story:

It states: “The choice of who can and cannot stand in May’s election was taken out of the hands of local party members after national Labour figures decided to take control. They announced the decision to overrule any local decision making in February, saying “power struggles and organisational issues” could damage Labour candidates’ prospects in both the local council and city mayoral elections.

“That decision was widely condemned by local members at the time as undemocratic. The national party has now made its decision – and 19 Labour councillors, some of whom have served their wards for decades, will be deselected and not be able to stand for Labour.

Here’s the point:

Starmer did indeed make such a promise. But his promises mean nothing – look at the shattered “10 pledges” he made when campaigning to become party leader. They have all been broken.

The Jacobin website explains the Labour leadership’s current policy:

“The party bureaucracy has embarked on a concerted operation to purge left-wingers from selection races. Popular local candidates are being bureaucratically blocked by right-wing NEC (National Executive Committee) members working hand in glove with fixers in Starmer’s top team. Their aim is to stop anyone to the left of center getting onto the shortlists put in front of members for the vote on who will be Labour’s Parliamentary candidate for that constituency.

“Their modus operandi is simple, and it involves breaking Labour’s own rule, agreed by Starmer’s NEC, that trade union-backed candidates would be automatically long-listed. Yet every left-winger blocked has enjoyed trade union backing, often from Unite and the Communication Workers Union  (CWU). In the case of Lauren Townsend, who stood for Milton Keynes North, she was backed by six affiliated unions including Unite and Unison. Consequently, Starmer’s fixers have had to come up with a workaround: “due diligence.”

“A “dossier” is compiled of “concerning evidence” that has supposedly “come to light” in the course of routine “due diligence” checks on social media. There are some truly laughable examples of what this evidence consists of, such as liking a tweet by Caroline Lucas or one from Nicola Sturgeon about testing negative for COVID. Equally, there are some disturbing examples of “evidence” used as grounds for blocking, including simply having mentioned Palestinian refugees— a blatant act of anti-Palestinian racism — and liking a tweet calling on Labour to be bolder in its economic policy, as well as one candidate being cited for a general “history of protest.” It’s a democratic scandal.

“The Labour leadership’s half-hearted claim that this is about “quality control” is easily debunked. For example, the leadership’s preferred candidate for Milton Keynes North did the exact same thing as Lauren Townsend yet proceeded to the shortlist without issue. In Barking, Labour Right NEC members first ignored, then swept under the carpet, evidence of Blue Labour figure Darren Rodwell engaging in what has been termed racist jokes. He was subsequently selected, with leading black British media outlet the Voice sounding the alarm on a “crisis of anti-black racism” within the party.

“More to the point, the leadership has been clear about what it’s up to, briefing the press that it’s pursuing what it calls the “heir and the spare” strategy, whereby left-wingers are blocked, a Starmer-backed candidate goes through, and their only competition is someone else the leadership also favors. In some cases, none of the candidates on the shortlist are local. And where leadership doesn’t get the shortlist it wants, it simply dissolves the local selection committee, as in Kensington & Camberwell Peckham this week.”

In increasing numbers of cases, the selection committees are now resigning – as are constituency party executives.

That isn’t all, though: now Starmer has resorted to telling party members what films to watch:

Add it all up and what you’ve got may add up to this:

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