Labour purges Black and brown councillors over Palestine support

A former Labour Party member in Brent, London, has revealed a controversial purge of Black and brown councillors over their opposition to Israel’s genocide in Gaza. White councillors who’ve expressed solidarity with Palestine, however, remain in place.

As Wembley Matters revealed on 3 September:

Labour’s Ruling Body (National Executive Committee) have imposed all Labour council candidates in Brent without any say from thousands of local party members or long serving MPs.

This includes barring eight sitting BAME Councillors, including Labour’s Chief Whip Cllr Iman Ahmadi Moghaddam and Cabinet Member Cllr Harbi Farah from standing in the May 2026 council election.

All of the councillors Labour has barred were signatories of “a statement calling for a ceasefire in Gaza in October 2023”, which the member believes is “the primary motive for their deselection”.

The story gets even murkier, however, because “white councillors who also signed the same statement survived the purge”. As the article insists, this:

will undoubtedly raise some difficult questions for Labour on the doorstep amongst Brent’s diverse communities.

In more "Labour is definitely not racist" news, the party imposed candidates in Brent for the May locals and deselected 8 BAME councillors, including their own chief whip and a cabinet member, but didn't deselect any of the white councillors there. https://t.co/4MZ9lPjgdk

— Willibee 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 (@Willibee64) September 4, 2025

Corrupt, racist Labour establishment purging the party into oblivion?

One non-selected candidate reportedly said:

The selection process was as corrupt as it’s ever been.

Another insider lamented that “half of the left councillors have been deselected”.

A “corporate lobbyist” supporter of Labour’s purger-in-chief Keir Starmer led the panel that made the decision. Other Starmerites may have also played a part. One, MP Georgia Gould, apparently has a track record of such behaviour:

Brent Council Labour group purged.
"… New Starmerite MP, Georgia Gould, imposed by the national party in 2024, is rumoured to have taken time out of her busy government ministerial role to personally intervene to encourage the purge and replace sitting Councillors with her… https://t.co/hdIwo4SDIa

— Andrew Feinstein (@andrewfeinstein) September 4, 2025

The article further points out that:

This appears to be the first step in removing council leader Muhammed Butt, motivated by Starmerite outrage over his non-compliance, especially his decision to allow Brent council to set up a ‘twinning arrangement’ with Nablus, a town in Palestine.

And it insists that:

This comes four days after Labour’s catastrophic defeat in the West Hampstead ward by-election in neighbouring Camden Council. A similar 23-point swing in Brent in 2026 would see councillors being lost in almost every single Labour-held ward. The recent upheaval in Brent Labour will undoubtedly increase this likelihood, leading to internal fears that Labour could lose control of Brent’s administration.

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