With two years to go until the next election, constituency battles are well underway across the country. Labour candidates are scrapping it out with one another for selection in winnable seats, with one such case being Chingford and Woodford Green. This London seat was just 1,263 votes off going red last time, with the added bonus of a prized scalp of in Sir Iain Duncan Smith, the sitting MP and former Tory party leader.
Faiza Shaheen, who fought the seat for Labour last time, is desperate once again to get selected in this area. But Mr S hears talk that some local members are unhappy about her lack of presence in north London – something of particular concern in an era when hyper-local candidates are favoured. Last week, Shaheen finally opted to confront rumours about her current residency status. She posted on Facebook a long, rambling note in which she admitted to, er, being employed by New York University – some 3,500 miles away. She confessed that ‘I have been working abroad for most of the past year’ before implying that those criticising such residency arrangements were misogynistic. Hmm.
Shaheen, who is up for selection tomorrow, would be a curious addition to the ranks of Sir Keir’s new Starmtroopers in parliament. During the 2019 campaign she campaigned with Ken Loach and has subsequently supported Jewish Voice for Labour’s Naomi Wimborne-Idrissi. More recently, in May’s local elections, she shared virtually no materials on Twitter to support any Labour candidates standing in Chingford and Woodford Green wards (despite an impressive 80,000 followers). Rather she preferred to just tweet her support for the one Corbynite candidate standing in a marginal ward alongside a sitting Labour candidate.
Given her track record, Mr S wonders just how many in Labour HQ will be quietly hoping for Shaheen’s defeat tomorrow.
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