I left the Labour party last year mainly because of what I felt to be the total disregard that the leadership of the party had for the wishes of its members. Recent events have only served to reinforce that belief. Most attention has been paid, understandably, to the lamentable efforts of the party to edge Diane Abbott out of the door, but I feel the way that Faiza Shaheen has been treated is more indicative of the way Labour is moving under Keir Starmer (I was mistreated – and that’s why hundreds of people will no longer vote Labour, they’ve told me, 31 May).
In the 2019 election, Ms Shaheen came to within a whisker, 1,262 votes, of defeating the Tory candidate, Iain Duncan Smith. Normally, marginal constituencies such as Chingford and Woodford Green would be the first to select candidates for the next election.
