The chair of Labour’s disputes panel has resigned, after sending an email earlier this week supporting the reinstatement of a suspended Labour council candidate accused of Holocaust denial.
Christine Shawcroft, who was elected to head the party’s disputes sub-committee in January, contacted a number of fellow members of Labour’s National Executive Committee (NEC) on Sunday, urging the reinstatement of Alan Bull, a council candidate in Peterborough.
Mr Bull shared an article on Facebook with the title: “International Red Cross report confirms the Holocaust of 6m Jews is a hoax”. It showed a picture of the gates of Auschwitz, with the words “Arbeit Macht Frei” replaced by “Muh Holocaust”, a taunt used by the far right to mock Jews.
Mr Bull was suspended last Thursday. In a subsequent email to members of the NEC, Ms Shawcroft said she was “concerned” to hear of Mr Bull’s suspension, and claimed that the Facebook post had been “taken completely out of context and alleged to show antisemitism”.
