A Corbynista candidate for the Camberwell and Peckham parliamentary seat says he’s been removed from the process because of his “life-long socialism” and anti-racism campaigning.
Maurice Mcleod, a Labour councillor for Battersea Park, Wandsworth, says the party told him he would not be on the long list for the seat last Friday evening, October, 14.
Last night, I was blocked from standing to be the next Labour MP for Camberwell & Peckham.
I'm gutted. The Party is saying it has no place for an anti-racist socialist like me in Parliament.
Thank you so much to all those who supported & worked on my campaign.
My statement: pic.twitter.com/RJ32IAsXCn
— Maurice Mcleod (he/him) (@mowords) October 15, 2022
The position, set to be vacated by Parliament’s current longest-standing MP Harriet Harman at the next election, is seen as one of the safest in the country. But Mcleod says Labour’s alleged explanation for his removal, his historic social media activity, was “not the real reason”.
“They’re absolutely not the real reasons. The real reason is that I’m considered to be on the left. I’m a socialist and I’ve been saying I’m a socialist forever,” he told the News.
A prolific columnist and Chief Executive of anti-racism charity ‘Race on the Agenda’, Mcleod has penned numerous pro-Corbyn articles and been open about his support for the former opposition leader.
According to Mcleod, Labour told him he should not have retweeted a post by former Green Party Leader Caroline Lucas four years ago. He says he deleted the retweet at the time but maintains that it was “a great tweet”, although he declined to say what it actually was about.
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Mcleod also says Labour said it was unhappy with a historic tweet criticising a north London Labour-run council, and that was criticised for failing to attend a vote as a Labour councillor.
He maintains that this reasoning is a “fictional intervention”, and the party is actually trying to put “clear blue water” between itself and the Corbyn administration.
Mcleod, a regular at Black Lives Matter (BLM) protests, is the former political editor of The Voice, Britain’s leading black newspaper, and helped campaign for justice after Stephen Lawrence’s killing.
He believes his anti-racism campaigning through BLM has made him “unpalatable” to a party that he says doesn’t want to seem anti-police.
Mcleod announced his expulsion from the process in a post retweeted over 2,500 times, in which he claimed Labour “sees no place in its ranks for black and brown socialists”.
He told the News: “I’m not saying they said ‘he’s a black guy throw him out’. It’s more the anti-racism part of my career that has meant standing up for communities.
“Even though I’m incredibly careful, that’s exactly the sort of thing that got me hauled out… through BLM, I’ve been on a platform with people who are anti-police and that won’t work with this Labour party.”
His exclusion has been met with a wave of opposition from both local and national political figures. Labour’s Rye Lane councillor, Chloe Tomlinson, said: “The national Labour Party have played dirty tricks to unjustly remove him as a candidate. He was an obvious front-runner in the contest. It’s clear his blocking is intended to rig the vote and instead hand the seat to one of Keir Starmer’s favoured candidates. This is completely shameful from Labour.”
Mcleod noted that in 2019, he had no problems getting on to the long list for Labour’s Vauxhall MP selection shortlist.
On Twitter, MP for Hackney North and Stoke Newington, Diane Abbot, wrote: “Very sorry to hear this Maurice. At the very least you should have had the opportunity to put yourself in front of members. But there is lot (sic) of this going on. Strong local candidates kept off the long list to facilitate the favoured ones.”
Very sorry to hear this Maurice. At the very least you should have had the opportunity to put yourself in front of members. But there is lot of this going on. Strong local candidates kept off the long list to facilitate the favoured ones
— Diane Abbott (@HackneyAbbott) October 15, 2022
He is not the only left-wing candidate on the ballot. Miatta Fahnbulleh, tipped by some as the party elite’s preferred candidate, is seen by many as a leftist thinker. She heads up the left-wing economic think tank the New Economics Foundation, and advocates for raising the national living wage and bolstering social security. But there are those who say she is of the “soft left”, making her a more appealing prospect for a party that is seen by some as seeking to regain the political centre.
Explaining why he had been kicked out while other left-wing candidates had retained their places, he said: “There’s a difference between being Miliband left and joining the party because you’re inspired by the politics brought to the party by Jeremy Corbyn.”
“Times of crisis generate vision”: Miatta Fahnbulleh wants to be the next Camberwell and Peckham MP
He added that the contest for the seat had been held in good spirits and thanked his rivals for their sympathetic messages.
Mcleod said dropping his campaign, which was backed by two unions, senior MPs such as Dawn Butler and Diane Abbot, and hundreds of supporters and volunteers, had left him “deflated”.
Asked what his vision had been for Camberwell and Peckham, he said: “It needs someone who can and will speak up for them and somebody who is not afraid to stand up to the police, to be visible, local and connected.”
Some of Harriet Harman’s constituents have criticised her for not being present in her own constituency and not having a dedicated constituency office. Mcleod said: “I don’t understand how you can’t have one. My idea of the job means you should have a constituency office and have people going ‘that’s where my MP is’. That has to happen. You should get tired of seeing them!
“The community needs a champion. You need people who get into the cabinet that is great, but I don’t know if that’s what Camberwell and Peckham needs.”
His exclusion leaves a long list made up of Evelyn Akoto, Marina Ahmad, Peter Babudu, Johnson Situ and Miatta Fahnbulleh.
McLeod, who says he has a “life-long connection” with south London, now wants Labour to clarify his position as a councillor in Labour-held Battersea Park.
“I love what I do as a councillor and we’re doing amazing things. I have every intention of not carrying on… but not with a stain over my name – not if they don’t explain their reasons.”
A Labour spokesperson did not address the reasons for his removal, simply responding: “We are pleased to have a long list of fantastic candidates for Camberwell and Peckham.
“Camberwell and Peckham deserves the return of another Labour MP under a Labour government to deliver a fairer, greener future for Britain.”
