Starmer under fire after Driscoll barred

Labour’s Sir Keir Starmer is under pressure over the decision to block left-leaning Jamie Driscoll from running in the North East’s inaugural mayoral election.

Unite, the party’s biggest union donor, warned of “serious consequences”.

Mr Driscoll, the current North of Tyne mayor, said he has not ruled out taking legal action against the party.

Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham and Liverpool City Region mayor Steve Rotheram also criticised the decision.

News that Mr Driscoll, who has been described as the “last Corbynista in power” – a reference to the former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn – was being excluded from the longlist to run for the new role for the wider region was revealed on Friday.

The post will cover Northumberland, Tyne and Wear and County Durham with powers over transport, housing and skills.

Asked on BBC Radio 4’s World At One if he could take legal action if unable to appeal against the decision, he said: “Obviously I’m taking advice on that. And I would absolutely prefer not to go down that route if it’s possible.”

He said there was a precedent for pausing a selection process.

“In 2019, when we went through this process of selection last time, the party stopped the process and restarted it again a month later, because they weren’t happy that any women had applied.

“All I really want is to let the people of the North East choose who is their mayor and not let London Labour choose who is their mayor.”

A senior Labour source linked the decision to Mr Driscoll sharing a panel with filmmaker Ken Loach, who was expelled from the party amid efforts to root out antisemitism.

Mr Loach, the director of socially critical films was expelled from Labour in 2021 during what he called at the time a “purge” of Mr Corbyn’s allies.

When asked about the event Mr Driscoll told the World At One: “I take part in lots of cultural events.

“This was an event organised in a local theatre as part of their 50th birthday celebrations. The last three feature films that actually are set in the North East were I, Daniel Blake, Sorry We Missed You, and currently coming out The Old Oak.

“Now Ken Loach is the director of those. So I did an event talking about films.

“If talking to someone about films, because they may have controversial views elsewhere, is grounds for denying members the chance to make their own judgment on that, then I think we’ve gone to quite a dark place indeed when it comes to democracy.”

Figures on the left of the party have blamed “factionalism” under Sir Keir’s leadership.

Unite general secretary Sharon Graham warned that if Labour “remains intent on only selecting nodding heads” then it will “continue to make serious policy mistakes”.

“These actions by Labour are a major mistake and have serious consequences,” she added.

Mr Burnham and Mr Rotheram expressed their “concern” in a joint letter to Johanna Baxter, chairwoman of Labour’s National Executive Committee (NEC).

“Whilst we appreciate the NEC’s important role in upholding standards within the party, and rooting out any form of antisemitism, racism and discrimination, it also has a responsibility to ensure decisions are democratic, transparent and fair,” they wrote.

“To exclude a sitting mayor from a selection process with no right of appeal appears to us to be none of those things.”

They said Mr Driscoll should be entitled to an appeal process and “deserves to be treated with more respect than he has so far been shown”.

Shadow business secretary Jonathan Reynolds “strongly” disagreed with claims Sir Keir was trying to purge the left of the party.

He told Sky: “Specifically in a case where somebody shares a platform with someone who themselves has been expelled from the Labour Party for their views on antisemitism, for opposing the tough action that needed to happen, that would preclude them from being a Labour candidate going forward.

“Because when we said we’d have zero-tolerance for antisemitism, when we said we would tear it out from its roots, we were serious about that.”

Mr Loach had told the PA news agency that keeping Mr Driscoll off the longlist because they had shared a platform was the “lamest excuse I’ve ever heard”.

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