Starmer wants ‘highest quality Labour candidates’ as he responds to Faiza Shaheen and Diane Abbott fallout

Keir Starmer denies Labour 'left-wing cull' after Faiza Shaheen blocked from electionSky News

Transcript

00:00 Three left-wing candidates now say they have been blocked from standing and some

00:05 people are suggesting that that is a strategy. Are you blocking left-wing

00:10 candidates from standing in this election? No. I've said repeatedly over

00:16 the last two years as we've selected our candidates that I want the highest

00:19 quality candidates. That's been the position for a very long time. The

00:24 situation in relation to Diane Abbott is that no decision has been taken to bar

00:30 her and you know we have to remember that she was a trailblazer as an MP. She

00:38 overcame incredible challenges to achieve what she's achieved in her

00:42 political career. She literally carved out the path for others to come

00:47 into politics and she did all that whilst also being one of the most abused MPs

00:51 across all political parties. But I've always had the aspiration that we'll

00:57 have the best quality candidates as we go into this election.