Keir Starmer's own goal as Iain Duncan Smith keeps seat after Labour civil war
Iain Duncan Smith has won the Chingford and Woodford Green seat after weeks of Labour infighting.
Top Tory Iain Duncan Smith has held on to his seat in east London after an Independent candidate split the Labour vote.
Iain Duncan Smith gained 17,281 votes, while Labour's Shama Tatler won 12.524 votes, with axed Labour MP hopeful Faiza Shaheen just behind her on 12,445 votes.
Keir Starmer came under fire in the run-up to the General Election after Independent candidate Ms Shaheen, who stood in the seat for Labour last time round, was barred from standing under the Labour banner.
As a result, after years of campaigning in the local area she decided to stand as an Independent, hugely damaging Labour's chances in the seat.
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After retaining his seat in Chingford and Woodford in east London, former Tory leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith said the party would now need a leader who listens.
Asked what kind of leader the party needed now, he told reporters: “Someone with common sense who understands the limits of political power and understands where we went wrong and is not going to shout the odds but is actually just going to do the right thing.
“I said earlier on it’s going to take time for us because the public doesn’t want to hear from us at the moment because we’ve just lost big.
“We have to earn the right now to be heard by them and that means figuring out the things the government does wrong and gets wrong and then having an alternative view that shows the public that this isn’t such a great government and they have problems.
“All governments with big majorities face problems at some point, rebellions and all sorts.”
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Labour was previously accused of of carrying out a “cull" of the Left-wing politicians after rumours began swirling that Diane Abbott, Britain's first Black female MP, had been denied from standing as a candidate, before it was later clarified that she could run.
Fellow Lefties Lloyd Russell-Moyle and Faiza Shaheen were also barred from standing under Keir Starmer's Labour banner - despite previously standing for the party.
Russell-Moyle was suspended over a complaint about his behaviour while Shaheen, who unsuccessfully campaigned to unseat Iain Duncan Smith at the last election, told she received an email telling her she had been deselected.
Sir Keir has been accused of blatantly lying by Left-wing commentator Aaron Bastani, who shared a 2020 clip in which the Labour leader promised he wouldn’t purge the left of his party if he won the leadership election.
Asked about Boris Johnson’s 2019 move of taking the whip away from 25 Tory MP opponents, he said: “If you’re going to go for unity, you’ve got to inspire people to come together. You can’t force them to come together. Disciplining people to be united is not going anywhere.”
After being axed as the Labour candidate for Chinford and Woodford Green, Ms Shaheen claimed that she had been penalised for describing her "experiences of Islamophobia", and had been stopped from speaking out on Palestine issues.
She said at the time: "I have reached this decision following hundreds of messages from people in my community, who say there are no options left for them. hey are tired of the Tories but now feel they can’t trust Labour.
"I am standing to give a voice to my community – the community that made me and has put their faith in me. I grew up here, went to school here and live here now."
