Will Keir Starmer's purge of the Labour left pay off?

Keir Starmer has risked the wrath of Labour's traditional base with a purge of the party's former left-wing leadership and their allies.

The row over the potential barring of Diane Abbott from standing as a Labour candidate at the general election and the expulsion of Jeremy Corbyn was followed by the removal of two more left-wing candidates. Lloyd Russell-Moyle, MP for Brighton Kemptown, was suspended by the party over allegations of personal misconduct, while economist Faiza Shaheen had her candidacy blocked for criticising Labour’s stance on the Middle East. Responding to the replacement of Shaheen, Abbott said on X: "Appalling. Whose clever idea has it been to have a cull of left wingers?"

Starmer's team have spent the last year "selecting Starmtroopers", said The Spectator's Katy Balls – "candidates they trust to have a low risk of scandal or rebellion". The "final touches" to that have included "a last minute purge of pre-existing candidates and MPs who risk frustrating" Labour's election campaign. 

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What did the commentators say?

Starmer's team calculated that their "changed Labour" and "country before party" messaging would chime more loudly with voters than "a few complaints from candidates", Balls added. 

But it seems their sums were wrong. The issue "blew up far more than the leader's office expected", said Sky News's deputy political editor Sam Coates. "High-profile Labour politicians" are "kicking off" and televised rallies of Abbott supporters in her constituency "have undoubtedly obliterated the party's attempts to get messages out on NHS waiting times". 

Starmer had been "trying to pull off a delicate act of choreography" over Abbott's future, said The Times's Geraldine Scott and Oliver Wright. As Labour's first and longest serving female Black MP, Abbott is "seen as an absolute trailblazer" who has made, as one Labour-voting woman put it, "a 'ceiling crashing contribution'" deserving of "recognition and dignity", said ITV's deputy political editor Anushka Asthana. For the Labour sources who briefed the media about her be barred from selection for the general election, however, "this was about stopping a high-profile candidate on the left of the party from standing again". 

Many in the party had reportedly wanted a "deal to be struck", with Abbott perhaps given a seat in the House of Lords. But the briefing given to the media has "simply poured fuel onto this situation" and could leave Starmer "in a very difficult situation". While some in his party "might relish this fight with such a high profile figure of the left", many others, including those loyal to the leader, "will be furious".  

Starmer and his allies may be calculating that Abbott will "disappear without trace after the election, and the whole affair will be forgotten in the excitement of their super-landslide", said Sean O'Grady in The Independent. "Maybe. But it actually does make Starmer and his wing of the party look weak." After all, Tony Blair, Gordon Brown and Ed Miliband all found space for Abbott in the party. Starmer may want to purge Labour of the left, but it is "still there" in the form of  Dawn Butler, Zarah Sultana, Rebecca Long-Bailey and others. "Starmer and his team have treated Abbott appallingly, made enemies needlessly, and created much quiet resentment."

Constituents in Abbott's east London seat told the i news site they felt the situation had been "badly managed". One said: "I feel it's become a very bad distraction at an early point in the election campaign, which they need to sort out; sounds to me as if they've been caught on the hop a bit."

Starmer could well be facing further trouble from Corbyn's decision to stand as an independent. While historically Corbyn's odds "are not good," it could be different for the former Labour leader, who has "basically universal name recognition in Britain and an unparalleled record of service in the constituency", said Richard Johnson on UnHerd. 

Standing for an 11th time in Islington North, a record "surpassed by no other Parliamentary candidate", Corbyn has "clear and consistent policy stands" that appeal to the left-leaning electorate, such as nationalising Royal Mail, water and energy, opposing the two-child benefit limit, and challenging Israel’s actions in Gaza. "He can therefore present himself as the 'principled' Left-wing choice."

What next?

Labour's National Executive Committee is due to finalise candidate endorsements on Tuesday, and "there could be more scalps between now and then", said Balls. 

There is a risk that this will become "an internal row" that "isolates parts of the left that believe Starmer is 'Tory-Lite'", said Balls. And while his party is ahead of the Tories in the polls, Starmer's own ratings are "less than stellar", said Coates.

And "if the bonds between the leader and party are easily frayed then there's trouble ahead. Rishi Sunak could tell him that."