Labour has blocked the former Kensington MP Emma Dent Coad from the longlist to fight the seat at the next election, a move which has sparked outrage among local campaigners.
Dent Coad, who was elected in 2017 in a shock victory over the Conservatives by just 20 votes, is the leader of the Labour group on the council, and lost her seat in 2019 to the Conservatives.
The former MP, who was a member of the Socialist Campaign Group, the Corbyn-loyal wing of the parliamentary Labour party, was the target of a number of stories in the tabloids during her time as an MP. They included a string of stories on the London mayoral candidate Shaun Bailey whom she had called a “token ghetto boy” and “scumbag”.
Labour sources said Dent Coad had been served with a “due diligence” dossier and met with officials on Friday evening. As well as some of the tabloid news stories about Dent Coad’s criticism of Conservatives and the royal family, officials expressed concern that Dent Coad had spoken at Stop the War Coalition demonstrations, though the group has not been officially proscribed.
Allies of Dent Coad said she was also told she had smiled or laughed when others on a panel made comments critical of Keir Starmer and had mentioned she had friends who left Labour under Blair – allegations which her allies described as “thoughtcrime”.
In a statement Dent Coad said: “I am devastated that the Labour party has blocked me from standing to once again represent my community in parliament, the community I have spent the last 20 years of my life fighting for.
“If I have been outspoken in my politics, it is due to my passion and care for Kensington – for my neighbours and friends – and because of my burning desire to stamp out injustice and build a fairer, more equal society … It is plain as day that the candidate selection process now being run by the party is being factionally abused and is not fit for purpose.”
A Momentum spokesperson said: “It is a travesty of justice that passionate, popular advocates for their community like Emma are being blocked en masse by Keir Starmer’s Labour on spurious grounds, so loyalists from outside the area can be parachuted in. This is a deeply damaging episode for the Labour party in Kensington, and one that local people are unlikely to forget.”
A Labour source said that selection procedures were stringent and involved high levels of due diligence. “It’s right that the Labour party expects prospective MPs to uphold the highest standards. Under Keir’s leadership that’s not going to change,” the source said.
Mete Coban, a youth campaigner from Hackney who founded the My Life My Say campaign, is believed to be the frontrunner for the seat.
Dent Coad’s exclusion is one of a number where leftwingers have been excluded from a list of candidates. Maurice McLeod, a Labour councillor and longstanding anti-racism campaigner, said he had been disallowed from contesting the Camberwell and Peckham seat.
In Sedgefield, the seat of former prime minister Tony Blair that Labour lost to the Tories in 2019, 13 constituency officials resigned in protest after the CLP chair was blocked from standing after making a series of critical social media comments about Starmer. The candidate, Paul Daly, has resigned from the party.
Earlier this week, Sam Tarry, the MP for Ilford South, was deselected by his local party in favour of the Redbridge council leader, Jas Athwal, in the culmination of a long-running local dispute.
