Israel Lobbyist Luke Akehurst’s election launch descends into chaos!

Right, so there have been some disastrous starts to election campaigns, but I can’t recall one ending up requiring a police escort on day one to rescue a candidate from their own would-be constituents, but this is what happened literally at the campaign launch in Durham North for full-time Israel lobbyist, Labour fixer & the guy who gave himself a safe Labour seat to run for, Luke Akehurst.
Akehurst’s launch saw blatant racism, protests against his candidacy, a punch up, Labour activists walking out in disgust and even news of a potential legal challenge to him standing, having foisted himself upon a part of the country this Oxford resident has no connection with.
Right, so a wee bit of footage there following Luke Akehurst’s election campaign launch in North Durham where he has installed himself as the candidate, a lovely safe Labour seat that the party has held since 1983 and Akehurst figures even he can get elected there, having failed to get elected on his own merit on two separate occasions in 2001 and 2005.
Well, local people are not happy and word is getting round apparently that the Labour candidate has been imposed on them and who he is and what he stands for and given the protesters there were very vocal about Palestine, his staunch, unshakable Zionist leanings, his job as a lobbyist for the apartheid state of Israel is what he’s best known for aside from his influence on Labour Party members and candidates. The fact the process is so corrupt that 5 NEC members who vote to decide who can be a candidate have awarded themselves candidacies in favourable seats, like Akehurst, will go down like a cup of cold sick too.
The police were called to that protest, the protesters preventing Akehurst from escaping his campaign launch, threats of attack came from 4 or 5 of Akehurst’s supporters against the protesters and certainly after police arrived, there was a bit of a dust up following those scenes, of which there is alleged footage of that attack, I’ve not reproduced it here, it can be found on social media, where a woman holding a Palestine flag got dragged around the road by the hair, by I can only assume an Akehurst supporter, because there is a few backing him, can’t say they’re necessarily locals, but not many though.
Let’s go back a bit here though, we’ve rushed to the end where he’s making his escape. Here he is celebrating with all the people he could muster to support him, apparently the two men are local councillors and the woman one of their wives, apparently a former councillor. Surely more people than that turned up? Well yes they did, here’s a picture inside of Pelton Community Centre, where it all began, not the biggest of crowds, but what that picture belies is that apparently far more Labour members had walked out and left the centre in disgust, refusing to be photographed with him and naturally people have had their fun with that image as social media will, references to Akehurst infamous support for the nuclear arms deterrent, amongst others. Quite the beloved character I’m sure you can agree, not least amongst those who had already booked the hall that day for a children’s birthday party, which Akehurst chose to interrupt rather than hold his campaign launch somewhere else. Making friends already!
It's also a very white picture there isn’t it, all the people willing to be photographed with Akehurst, very much not from ethnic minorities.
But the worst incident was undoubtedly this:
As Palestine protesters filmed, or attempted to film Luke Akehurst in his car, we know he was in the car from the earlier footage, therefore the large woman outside put a placard across the screen to prevent them from doing so and when they started chanting about Palestine, saying Akehurst’s beliefs belong in the BNP, which might shock you, but actually the BNP are pro Zionist themselves, as this excerpt from the Jewish Chronicle a very pro Zionist publication, shows:
‘The BNP website stated: “The demand of Israel to be a Jewish state underpins the existence of that nation — and is identical to the British National Party’s demand for Britain to remain an ethnically majority British state.”’
So they directly compare their policies for Britain to be identical to Israeli beliefs about their right to exist too.
But that wasn’t the bit that made this incident the worst scene of all, it was the response from an Akehurst supporter, saying in response ‘and yours belong in Iran, but we’re not shouting about that.’
Now it was clearly a woman, there is only one woman standing there that we can see, but because we didn’t actually see her say it, although clearly the way the camera then pans across to her, it does heavily imply that it was her, we can’t say for certain. However given who that is, it does warrant investigation, because that was Luke Akehurst’s wife.
Linda Smith as she’s known as, is a currently serving councillor on Oxford City Council. Labour run the council and she is in fact the housing portfolio holder and has hit the news since Akehurst declaration to be standing in North Durham, because she has said she will not be standing down from her position on the Council. Akehurst incidentally has also run to get onto Oxford City Council. He failed to get elected there was well.
But as an elected Labour figure herself, that comment now demands investigation, because it’s a trope, an Islamophobic and antisemitic trope all rolled into one, since making this reference to Palestinian activists, when you can appreciate the Palestinian people are themselves a Semitic people and also majority Muslim, they belong somewhere other than Palestine is clearly racist on both counts, but to say it to people protesting that their views belong in Iran, some of whom were British Asian, compounds that too. There has to be a Labour Party investigation into this incident, it’s disgusting, blatant racism, from someone and we need to know for sure if that was Akehurst’s wife who said that as is heavily implied and what that therefore says about him as a candidate, especially in light of the fact that for years now under the Starmer regime, the NEC, of which he is part of, has been purging disproportionate numbers of left wingers from Labour on the grounds of racist conduct, chiefly antisemitism, because this is yet another example of that Labour Party hierarchy of racism in action, where some kinds of racism are treated as worse than others, but if his own wife indulges in racist tropes that, if indeed she did say that – somebody did, somebody connected to his campaign there – then what does say about him?
What message does that send out to the people of North Durham and given that this is Luke Akehurst we’re talking about here, would Starmer or anyone else on the NEC do anything about this, or can we expect him to be given a free pass, because actually, this guy is a lot more influential within the party than you might think?
Well local people, local members and activists are clearly not willing to tolerate Akehurst’s presence, because yesterday a Crowdfunder launched, called ‘Opposing Luke Akehurst in North Durham’ seeking £5,000 to mount a campaign to educate the people of North Durham about the Labour candidate, who he is, what he stands for and urge them to take their vote elsewhere and already it’s cleared the £3000 mark. The campaign blurb reads:
‘The Labour Party have imposed Luke Akehurst, who is the director of anti-Palestinian organisation 'We Believe in Israel', as a candidate in North Durham. He has zero connection to the constituency and is being ran as the candidate because the Labour Party consider it a 'safe seat' and an easy win to get this person into Parliament.
This is a fighting fund to pay for messaging, literature, leaflets and other resources that will inform the electorate of North Durham about the views and positions of the Labour candidate in order to oppose him at the upcoming General Election.
There is very little time to get organised so please consider contributing to this fund as sending information and material to the electorate can be quite costly.’
Best of luck to that campaign, chip in if you can, if Labour think they can dump whoever they wish, wherever they wish and still win, they need to be shown otherwise, not just in North Durham, but around the country too.
In fact even established Labour MPs might be getting a bit uncomfortable right now as the party’s stance on Israel and Gaza, which Akehurst represents on steroids, could well see some big Labour names fail to be returned, such is the disgust in their constituencies at this, as this video recommendation will tell you all about and I’ll hopefully catch you on the next vid. Cheers folks.