A PRO-PALESTINE activist will challenge Keir Starmer’s seat as campaigners attempt to oust the Labour leader in the next General Election.
Andrew Feinstein, a former African National Congress MP in South Africa, will run as a candidate in Starmer’s central London seat of Holborn and St Pancras, The Telegraph reports.
He was selected for the challenge by a pressure group set up in support of Starmer’s predecessor as Labour leader, Jeremy Corbyn.
Starmer appears certain to hold his seat, enjoying a majority of 27,763 at the last election.
Feinstein describes himself as a “proud leftie Jew” on social media and was first elected to the South African parliament in 1994 during Nelson Mandela’s presidency.
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Responding on Twitter/X to a comparison made between the former South African president and Starmer by Alastair Campbell, Feinstein said: “I worked with Mandela – Starmer is the antithesis of Mandela: no courage, no principles, no integrity, no conviction, no morality, only mendacity.”
He sits on the steering committee of the campaign group Stop the War and his candidacy in Holborn and St Pancras is endorsed by Ocisa (Organise Corbyn Inspired Socialist Alliance).
In a statement, Feinstein said: “We can make this a campaign of national significance by also focusing on Starmer’s constant lies, his uncritical support for Israel and his refusal to call for a ceasefire in Gaza, the party’s racist hierarchy of racism and his support for the UK’s military adventurism and arms trade.
“We must do everything in our power to stop the Red Tory Starmer from winning.”
Starmer has been criticised fiercely from opponents on the left and within Labour for refusing to call for an immediate ceasefire between Israel and Hamas.
A crowdfunding page set up by Ocisa to support Feinstein’s campaign had raised just over £19,000 as of Monday lunchtime, The Telegraph reported.
The group was set up last year after Starmer suspended the Labour whip from Corbyn for saying complaints of antisemitism under his leadership were “dramatically overstated” in response to the Equality and Human Rights Commission's investigation into the party.
Many on the Labour left accuse the party of institutionalised Islamophobia and say it does not take that issue as seriously under Starmer’s leadership as it has antisemitism.
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