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pfizer in chingford following an inquisition by labour's national executive committee. are we witnessing a new shady form of mccarthyism .7 new shady form of mccarthyism.7 meanwhile, the reform party has issued its first immigration policy. today, businesses will be forced to pay higher national insurance on foreign employees , insurance on foreign employees, but to higher taxes on businesses sound particularly concerned . native and a row has concerned. native and a row has unfolded over the conservative party's supposed spending pledges. shadow chief secretary to the treasury had this to say yesterday that the party has set out a number of policies in this first week of the general election campaign, which is over £70 billion of unfunded spending commitments . £70 billion of unfunded spending commitments. but was he telling the truth? the tories have come out fighting , claiming using the out fighting, claiming using the same logic means labour promises a cost. a staggering unfunded £1961; a cost. a staggering unfunded £1964 billion. well, who's really telling the tru

pfizer in chingford following an inquisition by labour's national executive committee. shady form of mccarthyism ? new shady form of mccarthyism? meanwhile, the reform party has issued its first immigration policy. today, businesses will be forced to pay higher national insurance on foreign employees , insurance on foreign employees, but to higher taxes on businesses sound particularly concerned . native and a row has concerned. native and a row has unfolded over the conservative party's supposed spending pledges. shadow chief secretary to the treasury had this to say yesterday that the party has set out a number of policies in this first week of the general election campaign, which is over £70 billion of unfunded spending commitments . £70 billion of unfunded spending commitments. but was he telling the truth? the tories have come out fighting , claiming using the out fighting, claiming using the same logic means labour promises a cost. a staggering unfunded £196.4 billion. well, who's really telling the truth? plus, the message is that islam is america's last

yes today for the chingford and woodford constituency over some past posts and social media, both ofcorbynites coincidental? >> possibly not with starmer right to throw diane abbott out of the party. so joining us now is former mp labour mp bill rammell and former adviser to david cameron, philip blonde. good morning gentlemen , let's good morning gentlemen, let's start with you then. bill. this has been handled horribly. and there's sort of a whiff of, dishonesty about it. if keir starmer wants to clear out some of the corbynites , maybe he just of the corbynites, maybe he just should come out and be clear about that . about that. >> look, i'm a has been, but i don't think this has been our finest hour, look, i've had many disagreements with diane abbott, but she is a significant figure. she was the first black female mp. she's made a significant contribution to british politics, she did do wrong. i mean, you know, the statement she made, that , there was she made, that, there was prejudice against jews, but not racism was wrong, albeit she apologised immediately. but the process ha

chingford corbynite. this is over . tweets that she had liked over.was in the observer over a year ago. all three of these people are corbynites . you can people are corbynites. you can see why you are being accused of this left wing purge of your party. >> well, look, all three of those examples are examples of colleagues who, unfortunately, are in an independent complaints process at this stage in the election in which, you know, it's a difficult place to be because you can't be endorsed as a candidate. if that's the case. and look, it's not for me to define some of my colleagues, but if i point to, you know, andy mcdonald or ian lavery or other people who are zarah sultana, who i've worked with in this parliament, who are on the left of the party, they are endorsed to run as labour mps in their respective constituencies. but the key point here is that this factionalism, the story of factionalism, is not really relevant. it's fictitious and created to try to create a narrative. the labour party is back in the service of the country. we put the count

the her and the candidate in chingford and woodford green.— her and the candidate in chingford and woodfordthe labour party leadership— keir starmer and the labour party leadership would deny the description of how they operate. i�*m description of how they operate. i'm sure the description of how they operate. i�*m sure they would but the evidence points to exactly that, i�*m afraid, and i don�*t say that lightly. i have been a member of the labour party for 28 years under the leadership said tony blair, gordon brown, ed miliband, jeremy corbyn and keir starmer now. i can�*t remember a time where the behaviour at the top of the labour party with this nakedly factional, it is appalling. you sunported — factional, it is appalling. you supported jeremy _ factional, it is appalling. you supported jeremy corbyn and many would say that was a huge faction and lead to a huge defeat and keir starmer has brought the labour party in four years 20 win above or selections. in four years 20 win above or selections-— selections. there were no de selections — selections. there were no de selections are _

labour candidate for chingford. that's the iain duncan smith's seat in essex.within a thousand votes of 2019. she had a baby only six weeks ago. she was out and about campaigning and then she was told that she, had been removed from the selection list. now she is incredibly upset and also furious. she is now saying that she is going to take legal action against the labour party, and she is saying that she's come to the conclusion that the party has a problem with black and brown people , and that and brown people, and that there's been a systemic campaign of racism , islamophobia and of racism, islamophobia and bullying. so up until a day or two ago, sir keir starmer appeared to have done quite an incredible job of apparently uniting the labour party, keeping a lid on divisions and rows. that was something that only seemed to be happening within the conservative party that has absolutely changed. >> astonishing stuff. thank you very much. that update that's katherine forster there on the campaign trail for the labour party in abergavenny. of course, we'll come

duncan smith, of course , former duncan smith, of course, former leader of the party and mp for chingfordnd woodford green at ian. what is your party's policy on china ? on china? >> well, first of all, i should state that i am sanctioned by the chinese government . the chinese government. >> i know, i know your position and i've been hacked regularly and i've been hacked regularly and has my organisation, the inter—parliamentary attacks on china. >> so my view on this is very clearly that i think there is a bit of confliction inside the government. i think the foreign office is very opposed to taking on china because of business and all the other reasons they give. i think in places like defence, they are wanting to name names and to start squaring up to china on this. so so the reality is that our problem starts with the integrated review , which the integrated review, which when rishi sunak was trying to be prime minister he said they were a systemic threat. yep. i agree . when we got the agree. when we got the integrated review refreshed, it turned out that they were in fact an epoch

so she was hoping to be the candidate for chingford, and we've got other people as well.you agree with the what many people are calling the purge happening in labour? >> well, in respect to diane abbott, i think the test will be, i think tuesday today when the nec have to decide and lots of people are recognising the contribution diane's made 37 years. i think it is. contribution diane's made 37 years. i think it is . she's been years. i think it is. she's been it is the first black woman, the first black woman to be elected to parliament. i see no reason why she shouldn't be an mp. and you know , the labour party you know, the labour party should be a broad church. it's not a sect. and you know, we always have the experience of people being parachuted in in all parties just towards the day of the election. so that's nothing new. but i think, you know, diane abbott deserves to be a candidate. she's she's out there . the disciplinary process there. the disciplinary process she went through. so i think she'd be a i think she'd continue to represent the people of her constit

she was thinking she was going to be standing against sir iain duncan smith in chingford.o. she's been out and about campaigning already, but now she's also being told, no, you're not standing. and she is very upset about that. but what these people have in common, of course , is they were all to the course, is they were all to the left of the party. big corbyn supporters. it does feel like a little bit of a purge of the left. but of course with diane abbott we still don't know what the outcome will be. >> thank you very much indeed. katherine forster, our political correspondent there on the labour campaign trail. yes, sir. faiza shaheen, very much a darling of the left, very much a darling of the left, very much a darling of the left. but she was very much up for the fight against iain duncan smith. and she's going to now apparently, according to reports, anyway, she's instructed a lawyer. >> well, let's speak now to denis macshane, the former labour europe minister who joins us in the studio. denis thank you so much forjoining us. i mean, to me , i can understand mean,

duncan smith told me the other day that he thinks that a workers party candidate is going to stand in chingfordoodford green. he's on a very small majority there and actually if it splits the labour vote that could be a good thing for some tories in london. what do you think is the extent of the threat to labour from some of these independents as well? >> from corbyn? i would think quite a small threat. it's a very interesting case because he's been the member for decades and he's got a huge majority. but my guess would be that none the less. most people in the constituency who vote labour will vote labour. yes because actually they're getting rid of the tories and voting for jeremy corbyn threatens to split the votes. i was been there for decades. >> he's got a lot of local support there. >> i would guess he'll do very, very well. but he's got such a big majority that labour can lose a great chunk of that majority and still hold the seat i >> -- >> we're not going to have a situation where suddenly, in some bizarre turn of fate, the conservatives rise to victory in islington north. >> i don't

member faiza shaheen turned the waterworks on on newsnight after she was blocked from standing in chingfordot allowed to talk about my experiences of islamophobia and the double standards that i've seen and that we see with diane abbott, for instance ? i honestly, i'm for instance? i honestly, i'm just so shocked right now to be treated this badly after being such an active member of the party. >> well, now she said that sir keir starmers labour party has a problem with black and brown people and she's going to take them to court. remember this guy 7 them to court. remember this guy ? because the conservative party have a aim to break up our country. >> they aim to destroy our nhs and we will say no, we will. >> okay. he's called lloyd russell—moyle. he was the labour mp in brighton, wentworth, but he's been effectively booted out as well over a historic allegation which he denies. can you guess who labour were thinking of standing there. >> and i've also got boy mode and girl mode and i do drama dramatic films in boy mode. and then i'm touring in girl mode and doing stand up. and i campaig

because this, decision to withdraw faiza shaheen from chingford and woodford green, i mean, i coveredt area because iain duncan smith, the tory candidate, former tory leader, got a lot of abuse. and there was a lot of activist activity in 2019 and things were posted through the letterbox of his campaign office and graffiti was daubed on the wall. and i think the point is, is that those labour activists who were really behind somebody who was basically a corbynista candidate aren't necessarily going to go out campaigning with the same figour out campaigning with the same rigour if they get somebody who resembles, you know, labour's darren jones. yeah, who's much more of a moderate on the economy , for instance. right. economy, for instance. right. >> i suspect the starmer team won't lose much sleep over, you know, at most a few hundred. corbyn easter's not going door knocking. who previously would i suspect they'd be quite pleased about that. and i actually think what's interesting here is that first of all, as you mentioned, you know, when boris johnson took the whip from ken clarke, e

labour party for the faiza shaheen was a candidate and is now being blocked, again, from standing in chingford, c, , top i think the labour party, because we _ top i think the labour party, because we have _ top i think the labour party, because we have the - top i think the labour party, | because we have the system top i think the labour party, - because we have the system we do, needs to be a broad church. from what i can see, what's happening, i would say that, you know, less about the left and more about the message to muslims and black people this week. i think it's really not the message that the party wants to send. ,, . , message that the party wants to send. ,, .,, , ~ ., message that the party wants to send. ,, , ~ ., message that the party wants to send. ,, ., , send. she was blocked, or said she was told she _ send. she was blocked, or said she was told she was _ send. she was blocked, or said she was told she was blocked _ send. she was blocked, or said she was told she was blocked from - was told she was blocked from standing because she had reportedly liked tweets playing down

faiza shaheen, a leading economist who was due to fight chingford and woodford green against iain duncanood last time she was sacked for remarks that she made about gaza and about her admiration forjeremy corbyn. and now the replacements have got to be found in those seats. there's talk eze izzard might be slotted into brighton pavilion. sorry, brighton kempton. he previously tried to become the candidate for brighton pavilion. there's a lot of other doubt going on. there's even a bit of a tussle going on in one of the east end seats between morgan mcsweeney and keir starmer. believe it or not, morgan mcsweeney being the labour campaign chief and it's all going to happen today. labour wants to have all its candidates settled by midnight tonight. but there's the one problem with that is that they may get further retirements or there may be further assassinations, as i call them, that people who've been sacked as candidates for one reason or another. on the conservative side, there's still about 30 seats that you would say are currently conservative held, which still don't have a candidate

corbynite , a lloyd corbynite, a lloyd russell—moyle, faiza shaheen, who was thought she was standing in chingfordafter having a baby. she has also been barred from standing. she too was a huge supporter of jeremy corbyn, as of course was diane abbott, so it does seem to be. and also i should say lots of starmer supporters having pretty much parachuted now into safe seats, to be standing as candidates for laboun to be standing as candidates for labour. so it does look really like there's been a clear out of the left going on. now that's tricky, but i guess sir keir starmer is thinking going forward he expects to be prime minister and he wants to have people around him . they're going people around him. they're going to give him unequivocal support. >> yes , absolutely, now keir >> yes, absolutely, now keir starmer will be expecting to be pressed on this. he's going to be talking to lots of media in the coming days and weeks. i imagine he's going to try and say as little as possible. will he tell us how he came to this decision, came to this decision ? decision, came to this decision? >> yes. i thi

one of the ones that i've got my eye on, not least because my parents live there, is chingford and woodfordncan smith is the representative, which is really quite high on. >> and a lot of the conservative voters are moving out, aren't they, as well. so you've got you've got sort of the younger people moving out and then the conservatives moving even further out. yeah, i think it's quite interesting, but we're i thought we'd have a lot more punchy quote from conservative ministers this morning, but it's almost like they've given up them as well. it's almost like nobody, nobody even wants to change the leader, because no one wants to be the leader, because no one wants the general election defeat that's coming up on their cv. >> well, it was quite interesting what james cleverly had to say, if i can find it now, but he essentially was saying, look, it was tough. there's no point in pretending otherwise. but he says voters that have drifted away, as he describes it, will come back to us in time for the general election. so he's he's making out a lot of time for them to come back. >> i think i