Thomas Dewey convicted of possession of ‘most severe’ child-rape images and Labour had already threatened local members with disciplinary action if they discussed obvious safeguarding issues – but now party has locked women out of party communications system to prevent discussion
As Skwawkbox has already revealed, Labour members in Hackney were threatened with disciplinary action if they persisted in wanting to discuss the serious safeguarding issues raised by the party’s turning of a blind eye to the arrest and subsequent conviction of former councillor Thomas Dewey.
Dewey has been convicted of possession of the most serious category of child-rape images – which can include mutilation and bestiality – having admitted the offences after being arrested in April last year, yet despite his arrest Labour allowed the right-winger, a prominent figure in right-wing pressure group ‘Labour First’, to stand in the following month’s local elections. Labour First secretary Luke Akehurst plays a prominent role in party selection processes, but it is not known whether he had a part in the Dewey decision.
The situation raises grave and obvious concerns about the party’s safeguarding of children and other vulnerable people, but Labour has clamped down on attempts by Hackney members to discuss it – and Skwawkbox can reveal that, when the Hackney Labour women’s group refused to comply with orders to back off, the party cut off the group’s access to Labour’s ‘Organise’ system, preventing the group communicating with members through official channels.
Labour has been repeatedly exposed putting reputation and political ends before its safeguarding duties. Whistleblower Elaina Cohen was told by a selection panel that she could not stand as a party candidate – because she had blown the whistle to protect vulnerable domestic violence victims from abuse and exploitation by a party staffer who was in an affair with a right-wing MP. Party leader Keir Starmer and general secretary David Evans had participated in the cover-up of the allegations.
Starmer also protected, for many months, at least two alleged sex pests in his shadow cabinet and kept a sex-pest staffer in his team, while confirmed racist and right-wing sex-pest Neil Coyle was welcomed back into the party despite the findings against him by two parliamentary investigations.
And London Labour has ignored reports of abuse and threats toward a Muslim woman councillor by right-wingers in the West Midlands, while London Labour moved to protect alleged racists from press scrutiny and party discipline.
Reality mocks Labour’s claims that its purge of left-wingers and candidates has been to weed out candidates who might bring disrepute on the party: right-wingers even with the most serious of allegations against them are cossetted and allowed to stand, while left-wingers are blocked on any pretext or even none.
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