In a controversial move, the Labour Party has selected Luke Akehurst as its candidate for North Durham. This has caused much consternation amongst locals and across the UK. Akehurst is a right of centre Labour member whose statements on Israel and the United Nations have caused alarm.
Also controversial is the method of Akehurst’s appointment. In 2020, Keir Starmer tweeted “The selections for Labour candidates needs to be more democratic and we should end NEC impositions of candidates.” However, this seems to be exactly what happened here. Luke Akehurst is not from North Durham, but rather – Oxford. Further, he is a member of the NEC.
Labour North announced the decision on twitter:
Who is Luke Akehurst?
Luke Akehurst is a member of Labour’s National Executive Commitee (NEC), representing Constituency Labour Parties (CLPs). He was a councillor in Hackney between 2002 and 2014. He is the director of the group, We Believe in Israel. He is also the secretary of Labour First, a group which states that:
“Labour First is a network which exists to ensure that the voices of moderate party members are heard while the party is kept safe from the organised hard left…”
Akehurst on Israel
Akehurst has tweeted on X many times on the subject of Israel, although many of these have now been deleted. As Adam Bienkov of Byline Times has noted:
“Given the deselection of Labour candidate Faiza Shaheen, on the basis of old liked tweets, it’s worth noting that the party’s newly-appointed candidate for Durham North (and NEC member) Luke Akehurst, appears to have deleted a lot of his own tweets in the past week.”
Here is an example of one of his tweets:
Akehurst has also claimed, in a now deleted tweet, that the United Nations is antisemitic.
How was Akehurst selected?
We understand that the selection process was carried out by Labour’s NEC centrally as opposed to being democratically elected by local Labour Party members in North Durham, who would then have had the chance to question him about his views and position. As mentioned before, this is in direct contradiction to what Keir Starmer promised in 2020 when he said: “The selections for Labour candidates needs to be more democratic and we should end NEC impositions of candidates. Local Party members should select their candidates for every election.”
North Durham constituency
The new North Durham constituency is made up of the old North Durham plus 8% of the old North West Durham. It is predicted to be won by Labour, and is seen as a safe Labour seat.
Deleted tweets
It seems that Akehurst deleted over 2,000 tweets over two days before his candidacy was announced:
Crowdfunder to campaign against Akehurst
Local activist, Gary Spedding, has started a crowdfunder in opposition to Akehurst. It says:
“The Labour Party have imposed Luke Akehurst, who is the director of ‘We Believe in Israel’, as a candidate in North Durham. He has zero connection to the constituency and is being ran (sic) as the candidate because the Labour Party consider it a ‘safe seat’ and an easy win to get this person into Parliament.”
Spedding told North East Bylines;
“My intention is to provide support to those opposing Akehurst in this election by having materials that inform the electorate about his views and history. It is absolutely vital that the electorate can hold him accountable since he has been imposed as a Labour candidate in a relatively safe seat. The simple fact is that Akehurst isn’t an ordinary candidate.
“He’s an Israel lobbyist, a former arms lobbyist, and has expressed views on foreign policy that would shock and offend most people. His support for continued sale of arms to Saudi Arabia, despite that country’s atrocious human rights record as documented by Human Rights Watch and others, is deeply disturbing.”
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