Ex-Labour candidate Faiza Shaheen says she faced ‘racism, Islamophobia and bullying’ from inside party

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Andrew Feinberg

White House Correspondent

A left-wing candidate dropped by Labour claims she faced “a systematic campaign of racism, Islamophobia and bullying from some within the party”.

Faiza Shaheen said she was considering legal action against the party after it blocked her on Wednesday from standing at the general election.

Hitting out at Labour insiders, the former candidate claimed there had been numerous examples of how she had been singled out for unfair treatment.

“I have not experienced this level of relentless hostility in all my personal or professional life – not even from the Conservatives,” she wrote in the statement issued on X.

Labour is already under pressure after veteran MP Diane Abbott claimed she’d been barred from standing for the party again, prompting accusations of a purge of left-wingers.

Ms Shaheen, an economist, was set to take on former Tory leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith for the Chingford and Woodford Green seat, and many had predicted she would win on 4 July. She had contested the seat for Labour in 2019.

But she said she was told on Wednesday that the party was suspending her after she liked social media posts that criticised Israel and its actions in Gaza.

She added she had condemned the Hamas attack on Israel on 7 October and had organised a vigil with rabbis and imams.

In her statement, she added: “I am heartbroken at this decision but it does not come as a surprise. It is the end of a systemic campaign of racism, Islamophobia and bullying from some within the party which began when I first announced I wanted to run for Labour again.”

She claimed she had been banned from speaking publicly about racism in the party, stripped of a paid party organiser when seven months pregnant and told to “curb the attitude” when she said Labour was not taking Muslim concerns seriously enough.

Wednesday’s meeting with three members of the national executive committee was carried out with her crying baby on her lap, Ms Shaheen said.

She added: “This is not the end of my story and I will be releasing all the detail of what happened to me publicly.”

After her deselection, she posted: “It’s been a mad day and I’m very upset, but I’m touched by all the support.”

The Independent has contacted the Labour Party for its response. On Thursday night, the party selected Shama Tatler, a member of the Jewish Labour Movement, as its candidate for the Chingford and Woodford Green seat.