A Corbyn supporter who sparked controversy with her views on antisemitism has been re-selected by Labour to contest a marginal northeast London seat.
Faiza Shaheen, dubbed the “Chingford Corbynite”, was chosen on Saturday to stand in Chingford and Woodford Green against former Tory leader Iain Duncan Smith, who defeated her by just 1,263 votes in 2019.
Her resurgence has caused deep concern that Sir Keir Starmer has not closed the chapter on his predecessor.
Shaheen was a vocal supporter of Corbyn. She campaigned with controversial leftwing filmmaker Ken Loach, and supported Jewish Voice for Labour’s Naomi Wimborne-Idrissi.
Lord Ian Austin, who resigned from the Labour Party in protest against Mr Corbyn’s handling of antisemitism, told the JC: “This shows the influence the Corbyn-supporting hard left still have in the Labour Party and how much work is needed to return the party to mainstream centre-ground politics.
“It is a big test for Keir Starmer: is he strong and determined enough to drive out the hard left and ensure people like this are not able to stand as candidates because if he isn’t, many people will worry that the far left could seize control again.”
Corbyn supporter Faiza Shaheen who said attacks on him were lies has been selected to stand for Labour again pic.twitter.com/7DjR64wZTC
— Ian Austin (@LordIanAustin) July 23, 2022
In a statement to the Jewish News, Shaheen defended her record, insisting that she “criticised the Corbyn leadership for not taking antisemitism seriously enough”.
“Each member – including myself – must make all efforts to repair the trust between the Labour Party and the Jewish community,” she added.
Shaheen’s re-selection was celebrated by much of the left of the Labour Party. She received over 200 votes from local members, while her main challenger Bilal Mahmood, who received the backing of MPs including Stella Creasy and David Lammy, received just over 160.
In the run up to the 2019 general election, Shaheen sparked outrage in the Jewish community by campaigning with filmmaker Ken Loach, who was subsequently expelled from the Labour Party due to his support for ‘Labour Against the Witch-hunt', a group that denied or downplayed antisemitism claims in the party.
She also defended Jewish Voice for Labour’s Naomi Wimborne-Idrissi after her suspension from the Labour Party due to alleged antisemitism-related infringements, calling her “kind and patient” and arguing “she doesn’t deserve this”.
The Labour Parliamentary candidate Faiza Shaheen is proud to have the support of Ken Loach. 1/6 pic.twitter.com/J5IpIVOBo7
— habibi (@habibi_uk) November 11, 2019
In 2018, during an appearance on Sky News, she defended Jeremy Corbyn’s attendance at a ceremony in 2014 where a photo appeared to show him standing opposite the graves of Atef Bseiso and Salah Khalaf, two senior PLO officers who were accused of links to a terrorist attack at the 1972 Munich Olympic Games that killed 11 Israelis.
But she also said that “more can be done and more should’ve been done” to rid Labour under Corbyn of antisemitism.
She was nicknamed the “Chingford Corbynite” by the New Statesman magazine ahead of the 2019 election. She said in that interview: “Taking out IDS (Iain Duncan Smith) – every time I say that it makes me smile.”
https://twitter.com/faizashaheen/status/1334649168200163335
After her defeat in 2019, she told Metro: ”What I really struggled with on the doorstep, was when people said they can’t vote for Labour because of antisemitism, and cases have been badly handed, but when people said ‘I’m voting for Iain Duncan Smith’ and I said what about Islamophobia, it was perceived as not really a thing.”
Her selection battle was fraught, with members reportedly unhappy that she had spent much of the last year living and working in New York.
During the May local elections, she shared almost no material on social media in support of any Labour candidates standing in Chingford and Woodford Green wards, but did tweet her support for a Corbynite candidate standing in a marginal ward alongside a sitting Labour candidate, The Spectator reported.
In a statement to the Jewish News in response to the claims, Faiza Shaheen said: “I criticised the Corbyn leadership for not taking antisemitism seriously enough, and I think Starmer must do more too.
“It’s not just about the leaders though, each member – including myself – must make all efforts to repair the trust between the Labour Party and the Jewish community.”
Faiza Shaheen has also been approached by the JC for comment.
