Starmer's Party Management May Come Back to Bite Him

The UK general election campaign started almost laughably well for Labour. The Tories seemed more surprised by their own surprise election than Labour did, putting out a series of ill-thought-out policies while Prime Minister Rishi Sunak embarrassed himself in a variety of ways in just a few short days.

This week, however, we came back down to Earth with a thud: Days of headlines about Labour’s internal strife were kicked off by a story in the Times that claimed Diane Abbott would be blocked from standing for Labour at the election. Abbott, the first Black woman elected to parliament and MP for Hackney North and Stoke Newington since 1987, had the Labour whip suspended last year after claiming that Travellers and Jewish people did not experience racism. Whether she would be allowed to stand was an open question, and one seemingly answered by the Times story. What followed were days of public wrangling about her future before Keir Starmer announced on Friday that Abbott would be allowed to stand.