The Peterborough Evening Telegraph
Labour Party candidate is suspended
Investigation continuing into allegation of anti-Semitism
The Labour Party has suspended a Peterborough election candidate following allegations of anti-Semitism.
Alan Bull had been selected to stand for the party in Stanground South in May’s Peterborough City Council elections, despite the party being made aware of alleged anti-Semitic posts on Facebook last summer, as exclusively revealed by the Peterborough Telegraph last month.
Mr Bull told the PT at the time that the “private” posts were “doctored screenshots.”
When the PT ran its original article, a Labour spokesperson said: “The Labour Party does not comment on internal selection matters,” but after the story was picked up by the Jewish Chronicle last Thursday it emerged that the party had now suspended Mr Bull, meaning he will no longer be able to stand for the party in the local elections.
A Labour spokesman said last Thursday: “Alan Bull has been suspended from the party pending investigation.
“Labour takes all complaints of anti-Semitism extremely seriously, which are fully investigated and appropriate disciplinary action taken in line with our rules and procedures.
“Anti-Semitism has absolutely no place in the party and we are committed to challenging and campaigning against it all its forms.”
The Facebook posts in question were claimed to be anti-Semitic in nature and alsoinvolvedtheallegedsharing of an article questioning the Holocaust.
At the time Mr Bull told the PT that the posts had been “doctored.”
The PT contacted Mr Bull last Thursday but he declined to speak to the reporter.
The local elections take place on Thursday, May 3 with 18 seats being contested.
The Conservatives currently hold 30 of the 60 seats on the council while Labour hold 15.
However, Labour’s council group leader Cllr Ed Murphy is confident of making inroads into the Tory lead despite the Conservatives defending one less seat.
The Liberal Democrats currently hold five seats, the Liberal Party three and UKIP two.
There are also three members of the Werrington First group and two independents.