Luke Akehurst - “Really Nice Guy”

The tone deaf attitude of those in the Westminster bubble - whatever their stripe - has been on show in the run-up to July’s General Election, with party insiders lining up, or being lined up, for seats some way from their stamping ground. And going for the distance record for Labour has been professional lobbyist and backroom organiser Luke Akehurst of Labour Files infamy.

Luke Akehurst

Akehurst has been imposed as the prospective Parliamentary candidate for the seat of North Durham. This is well north of 200 miles away from Oxford, where he resides, and where he was a councillor until losing to the Greens. Adding fuel to this particular fire is that his day job, at time of typing, was as Director of an organisation called We Believe In Israel. What that?

This entity came out of the British Israel Communication and Research Centre, founded after the beginning of the Second Intifada. We Believe in Israel is BICOM's pro-Israel advocacy organisation in the United Kingdom. So Akehurst advocates for Israel, which is fair enough, and he makes no secret of his role, or, indeed, where his sympathies lie - with Israel.

The problem comes when, as is expected given the overall polling numbers, he becomes an MP, which is a full-time job in itself. He can’t be lobbying for any other organisation, whether it’s a nation state, multinational organisation, or anything else, at the same time. We’ve seen enough lobbying scandals with the Tories. So when is Akehurst going to commit to only being an MP?

And no, this is not and cannot be about anti-Semitism: that would mean conflating Israel with All Jews, which, as the IHRA definition of anti-Semitism points out, is in itself an anti-Semitic trope. Nor is Akehurst Jewish: he is, though, an unswerving Zionist. One who has garnered a significant amount of adverse comment, so that the propaganda machine has been deployed.

This has resulted in a most favourable item in the Guardian, which concedes “he has stridently defended Israel’s actions in Gaza as proportionate” before deploying the soft soap, an unnamed colleague claiming “One of the things that’s interesting about Luke’s reputation is that he’s much nicer than the internet thinks he will be … People who don’t like him turn up to have a row with him, and find a really nice guy”. Let’s see how “really nice” he appears.

After one Tweeter declared “I am a LP member and I would have voted for Dave Nellist in Erdington”, he responded “Name and CLP please”. The same Tweeter’s “I know of Birmingham, Coventry,Bristol, Oxford and London CLP members who doorstepped for Nellist” brought the response “Names please”.

Threatening, much? Maybe he was joshing. Er, maybe not: “I'm on the NEC and therefore responsible for upholding the rules of the party and you appear to have committed an auto exclusion offence”. Maybe the beatings will stop when morale improves. Maybe anyone on the left who came out with that would have been all over the right-wing press for some time afterwards.

There is also Akehurst’s (admitted) belief that the UN is anti-Semitic, and the jaw-dropping claim that Jews were “politically black”. That’s quite the reach, after Martin Forde’s report detailed what was described as a “hierarchy of racism” within Labour. Anti-Semitism was dealt with promptly, as it should be, but anti-Black racism was, apparently, not. Maybe things have changed.

What, then, of this “really nice guy” rocking up at Pelton Community Centre yesterday to meet his adoring team? Predictably, there was a protest outside, and it has been alleged that some in the local party were less than totally impressed when they were refused the opportunity to question The Great Man. Some most unfortunate video footage is now in circulation.

Gary Spedding, who campaigns for Palestinian rights, and also against anti-Semitism, summed it up: “Today protestors who turned out against Luke Akehurst's candidacy were subjected to - threats and intimidation - physical violence - Islamophobic and anti-semitic remarks - Nasty insults and harassment”. Responding with “Name and CLP?” won’t impress anyone.

Maybe he really is “a really nice guy”. Or maybe that claim is total horseshit.

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