Paul Williams also slated for sexist tweets, mockery of Muslims and support for NHS privatisation
Labour’s candidate in the Hartlepool by-election candidate – imposed without giving members a chance to vote on who they wanted to represent them, despite misgivings about his local knowledge – broke a party rule that requires automatic expulsion (the ‘auto-exclusion’ rule), SKWAWKBOX can reveal.
Labour’s rules ban any promotion of rival parties by its members. However, the Politwoops website that records MPs’ deleted tweets shows that, during the run-up to the 2019 general election, Williams retweeted a call on the party to stand down in ten seats to allow LibDems a better chance of success:
In 2017, Labour expelled three members after a Surrey branch of the party voted to back the NHA party’s Dr Louise Irvine to stand against then-Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt and for Labour not to stand a candidate against him, in line with a similar call by the UK Progressive Alliance movement.
Williams has also been slammed – and has apologised for – a tweet about discussing choosing a preferred ‘Tory MILF’, a sexist reference to sexually desirable women with children and for calling Saudi Arabia a ‘progressive’ nation.
Williams has also praised the Tories’ plan for ‘Integrated Care Organisations’, which NHS campaigners say is cover for further break-up and privatisation of the NHS:
Labour has supposedly introduced a new system for excluding potential candidates if they say anything controversial on social media – a move that many believe is designed to block working-class and radical candidates from elected positions. It seems clear that no such filter was applied to Williams’s candidacy.
But members will be entitled to ask why, when ordinary party members were ‘auto-excluded’ under the rule about supporting other parties simply for retweeting a tweet about a Green party policy – or simply for swearing about a rock band – a former MP is allowed to stand as a parliamentary candidate when he shared a request for Labour to give ten LibDem candidates a clear path at the last general election.
Dr Williams was contacted for comment but did not respond before publication.
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