"What message are you sending my community?"
Faiza Shaheen expressed shock over Labour blocking her from standing as a candidate.
It came just days after she launched her general election campaign for the Chingford and Woodford Green seat.
She was not endorsed by Labour’s National Executive Committee (NEC) after she allegedly liked a series of social media posts that downplayed antisemitism accusations.
Faiza Shaheen was set to take on former Conservative Party leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith in the marginal northeast London constituency.
She narrowly lost to him in the same seat at the 2019 general election.
Ms Shaheen told BBC Newsnight she “thought” she was going to fight the constituency, but got an email on the evening of May 29 that she said claimed she would “frustrate Labour’s purpose”.
She was called to a meeting with a panel of NEC members in which they highlighted posts which raised questions about her suitability as a candidate.
One post read: “Every time you say something even mildly critical of Israel, you’re immediately assailed by scores of hysterical people who explain to you why you’re completely wrong, how you’re biased against Israel.
“Moreover, you can’t easily ignore them because those are not just random people.
“They tend to be friends or people who move in the same circles as you. Those people are mobilised by professional organisations.”
Ms Shaheen told Newsnight she does not remember liking the post.
She said: “I know what’s wrong with it, of course, the line that’s there about ‘they’re in professional organisations’, it plays into a trope and I absolutely don’t agree with that and I’m sorry about that.
“And I expressed that I was sorry in that meeting yesterday over my crying baby but that’s one tweet.
“I’ve organised an interfaith vigil with a local Rabbi after the attacks, Hamas’ attack.”
Speaking about her candidacy being blocked, she admitted:
“I feel foolish.
“Because everyone said I was the one socialist that was running, you know, it was a surprise that I wasn’t blocked earlier, everyone knows that.
“And of course they were going to come for me and I did something stupid and honestly I don’t remember liking that (tweet).”
The full ten minutes of @faizashaheen on #newsnight.
Faiza gave this interview only an hour after being told her candidacy had been blocked for liking a tweet.
The people of Chingford and Woodford Green have been done a terrible disservice. pic.twitter.com/tYZ4ybr4xg
— Michael Walker (@michaeljswalker) May 29, 2024
Faiza Shaheen said she was in a “state of shock” and offered an apology to her supporters.
She said: “There’s so many people that have helped me.
“My phone is blowing up with local people trying to organise a rally and I just want to thank my old school teachers and the kids that came out tonight and I’m so sorry.
“I’m genuinely so sorry that it’s come to this.
“I know you really wanted me to be your MP and I really wanted that too.”
On what she wanted to say to Sir Keir Starmer, Ms Shaheen referenced Diane Abbott, whose position in terms of whether she can stand as a Labour candidate for Hackney North and Stoke Newington has yet to be clarified by the party.
Ms Shaheen said: “On top of Gaza, on top of Diane Abbott and now this to me, when there’s such clear double standards of how other people have been treated when stuff has happened.
“What message are you sending my community? What message are you sending the black community?”
Jeremy Corbyn has also suggested Sir Keir is trying to “purge” the left wing of the party.
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