Anyone remember if we discussed Luke Akehurst? First time ever a DU search produced "some results may have been removed

[muriel_volestrangler]

under data protection law in Europe. " He's a Labour activist and now candidate, on the right of the party.

There's a Guardian article about him: https://www.theguardian.com/politics/article/2024/may/31/luke-akehurst-labour-activist-turned-controversial-election-candidate

and I thought "I've seen the name - was it on DU?" So I searched, and this is the first time I've ever seen a DU search return no results, but including the non-helpful "Some results may have been removed under data protection law in Europe. Learn more" (spoiler: you never learn more by clicking on it).

My memory of the conversation, whether here or elsewhere, was that he's an annoying t**t. Guess if he has got Google to remove results about him, I'll just have to go on assuming that.

[Emrys]

1. He's reportedly just deleted some 2,000 tweets,

so it looks like there's some social media cleansing going on to support his carpetbagging candidacy in North Durham. Here's one of his tweets that's now gone:



I say "gone", they would be gone, but people keep posting screencaps of them as replies to his tweets, along with a few fakes, so caution is required. The screencap above has been verified: https://metro.co.uk/2024/05/30/labour-candidate-defends-describing-un-antisemitic-20942514/

I don't recall discussing him here myself. Given his leading role in vilifying and opposing Corbyn, that may have been the context in which any conversations took place.

[T_i_B]

2. Luke "the nuke" Akehurst

Has a reputation going back to his student days. More Blairite than Blair himself, ultra-factional and Machiavellian with it. Hated by the left of the party, and a perfect representation of the internal politics that does so much to ruin the Labour party for so many people (myself included).

I first came across him in 2007, when he was a prominent Labour blogger. He's on Labour's NEC and he's blatantly been up to selection shenanigans this election. Which among other things has got him the candidacy for Durham North in an incredibly shameless act of carpetbagging.

At present a lot of anti-Akehust sentiment focuses on his long time support of Israel. Which is something he will happily spin to his advantage. However, there are many other issues with Akehurst that are likely to make him a liability for Starmer in parliament.