Sir Keir Starmer has been accused of carrying out a purge of left-wing candidates ahead of the selection deadline

Sir Keir Starmer has been accused of carrying out a purge of left-wing candidates ahead of the selection deadline for the general election. The Labor leader denies this but some in his party don't believe him. "This factional, vindictive behavior is designed to humiliate socialist candidates as well as block them." These are the words of Beth Winter – who was, until Wednesday, a Labor MP and is standing down. Labor wants to talk about anti-social behavior today, but they are themselves having a very public slanging match that is not exactly neighborly.

Let me give you four names: Jeremy Corbyn, Diane Abbott, Faiza Shaheen and Lloyd Russell-Moyle. Ms Winter is furious at what is happening to Ms Abbott and Ms Shaheen. Mr Corbyn and Mr Russell Moyle won't be running as Labor candidates, and right now it looks like Ms Abbott and Ms Shaheen won't be either. Labor makes the argument that each of their cases are different, and there is some truth in that. It is also true to say they are all prominent left-wing voices, at just the moment something else is going on. Indulge me with a bit of imagery for a second. If you were to look through a pair of political binoculars right now, and point them towards the sky, you would see parachutes descending from above.

Clinging to the ropes and smiling, a collection of Labor figures likely to be Starmer loyalists. Two examples: there is Josh Simons, who has run what is seen as the Starmerite Labor Together organization, and will be Labour's candidate in nearby Wigan. And there is a former adviser to Rachel Reeves, Heather Iqbal, in Dewsbury and Batley in West Yorkshire. So the loyalists get the thumbs up, the potential troublemakers don't, argue those on the Left. To an extent, twas ever thus – leaders of all parties try to ensure they build a party in their own image. And Sir Keir will worry that were he to manage a majority but only a narrow one, he could be beholden to Labour's left wing.

But what gives this row crackle is Mr Corbyn and Ms Abbott in particular are cause celebres – because after the left wing's recent dominance in the party, they have a prominence they wouldn't otherwise have had. "It's complicated" a senior Labor figure close to the leadership tells me about the Diane Abbott row. It sounds like a relationship status update on someone's social media profile, but actually amounts to an understatement of the political relationship between Ms Abbott and the Labor leadership. She reckons she has been barred from standing. The party centrally says that she has not. This is how both these things could be true: if she does decide to stand, the party's National Executive Committee would need to approve her, and they may decide not to.

There had been a hope from a lot of Labor folk that having readmitted her into the parliamentary party this week, just before Parliament dissolved, she would decide to retire, would be garlanded with public praise by senior Labor figures from Sir Keir down, and that would be the end of things. It hasn't exactly turned out like that. Now add in that those close to Ms Shaheen have told the BBC that she has "instructed a lawyer and is challenging the decision against her".