Sally Gimson’s deselection and the battle for Labour’s soul

Anyone who doubts that the far left is more interested in winning the faction fight within the Labour party than a general election, should look at how it has treated Sally Gimson, the Labour candidate in Bassetlaw.

At least she was the Labour candidate until yesterday when Jon Lansman, a director of Momentum (it is a company, so the anti-capitalist campaigners can retain corporate control) and two other members of Labour’s National Executive Committee, Andi Fox from the transport union TSSA and Sarah Owen from the GMB, deselected her.

Lansman and his comrades did not have the courtesy to explain to the world why. Indeed, we will see that every courtesy and every element of due process has been absent in the Gimson case. The BBC reported that it ‘understood’ that the deselection came after ‘complaints relating to “very serious allegations” concerning “protected characteristics” – this can relate to issues surrounding race, disability, and sexuality’.