Rebecca Gordon-Nesbitt

The February issue of Labour Briefing features an article about the South Thanet struggle, written by South Thanet Labour Party’s Vice Chair, Norman Thomas, in a personal capacity.

Norman provides a bit of background to the smear campaign that has been waged against South Thanet’s parliamentary campaign since it began in April. The article also captures some of the anger that has pervaded the CLP since an NEC panel decided not to endorse its democratically elected parliamentary candidate.

You can read the full article here.

To subscribe to Labour Briefing, the journal of the Labour Representation Committee, click here.

To celebrate me being selected as the Labour Party’s parliamentary candidate for South Thanet, my dear friend David Shrigley gave me a brilliant artwork to do with as I wished.

As we embark on the next round of fundraising for legal action, it seems only right to put this artwork towards the campaign. In the time it takes to reach the reserve price, have some fun bidding on it here.

Trust the Morning Star to hit the nail on the head in its coverage of the South Thanet struggle from 23 January 2019. I am proud to be quoted as follows:

“The last thing I want to do is go to court, but we have to make the Labour Party more accountable to its members and this seems to be the only way of doing it.

“I want to stress that this is in no way an attack on the Labour Party leadership. I joined the party to support [Jeremy Corbyn], and I now find myself facing some of the same false allegations that have characterised his leadership.”

You can read the full article here or here:

Labour’s NEC refused to endorse Rebecca Gordon-Nesbitt on the grounds she could ‘potentially bring the party into disrepute’

A SOCIALIST historian banned from standing as a parliamentary candidate by Labour revealed today that she is reluctantly considering taking the party to the High Court.

The Constituency Labour Party of South Thanet elected Dr Rebecca Gordon-Nesbitt as its parliamentary candidate last April, but the national executive committee (NEC) refused to endorse her in December.

The committee made its decision on the grounds that her conduct “has the potential to bring the party into disrepute” based on three Twitter posts on the now deleted Centre for Cultural Change account.

One of the tweets was in support of former Momentum vice-chair Jacqueline Walker, which said that accusations of anti-semitism levelled at her were “politically motivated.”

A second tweet read: “Anti-semitism has been weaponised by those who seek to silence anti-zionist voices. See The Lynching endorsed by Ken Loach, for elucidation.”

The third was: “Accusations of AS [anti-semitism] levelled in an attempt to discredit the left.”

Earlier this month, Jewish Voice for Labour said the grounds for the decision were “appalling” and “highly questionable.”

South Thanet CLP has called on the NEC’s organisation committee to review the decision but so far it has refused.

High Court action could soon be launched against the party by a legal team that includes radical lawyer Michael Mansfield QC after Ms Gordon-Nesbitt’s online funding campaign exceeded £4,000.

She said: “The last thing I want to do is go to court, but we have to make the Labour Party more accountable to its members and this seems to be the only way of doing it.

“I want to stress that this is in no way an attack on the Labour Party leadership. I joined the party to support [Jeremy Corbyn], and I now find myself facing some of the same false allegations that have characterised his leadership.”

On 23 January 2019, BBC Radio Kent covered the plight of South Thanet Labour Party’s parliamentary campaign. John Warnett, host of the Drive Time show, spoke to Political Reporter, Caroline Williams. As Caroline explains, I feel the decision has damaged my reputation and provoked questions about the way the party runs. Their conversation reveals the farcical nature of the case against me, which John summarises as me having been accused of supporting someone who may or may not have been guilty of antisemitism.

I was asked if I was concerned our High Court action would damage the Labour Party. I replied:

No, I don’t feel that’s going to happen. I feel, in fact, it’s going to enhance the Labour Party. There seems to be a deficit of democracy at the heart of the party that’s a historical hangover from another time, whereby local members of a constituency vote for their parliamentary candidate and the National Executive has the right to veto that candidate. Which is fair enough – there are instances where that might be necessary – but the fact that there’s no right to appeal suggests that there isn’t proper democracy at the heart of the party.

You can listen to the full piece here:

 

 

 

On 23 January 2018, Isle of Thanet News reported on the NEC’s continued refusal to review its decision not to endorse me.

I was pleased to be quoted saying:

“I was all set to walk away before Christmas, but I’ve been amazed and inspired by the response of Labour Party members and supporters in South Thanet and beyond. After eight months of great teamwork, the verdict of the local party seems to be that they still want me as their candidate.”

“This seems to be an example of the party’s executive ignoring the will of the members and denying one of its democratically elected parliamentary candidates the right to a fair hearing.”

Read the full article here.