Rebecca Cleared: Now Reinstate Her!

Rebecca Gordon-Nesbitt was accused by Labour’s National Constitutional Committee (NCC) of antisemitism. The flimsy evidence on which she was convicted was provided by assertions from the Tory blogger Guido Fawkes taken ‘out of context’.

She had issued tweets which defended Jackie Walker, a fellow former South Thanet Labour member and ex vice-chair, who was accused of antisemitism. So anyone who defends another member against allegations of antisemitism is in turn accused antisemitism!

One of the tweets said: “Accusations of antisemitism levelled at Jackie Walker are politically motivated”, while another read: “Anti-semitism has been weaponised by those who seek to silence anti-Zionist voices.” Rebecca defended the posts saying they had not "intended to imply that antisemitism doesn’t exist in the Labour party" before issuing an apology.

Subsequently the National Executive Committee (NEC) refused to endorse her as Parliamentary candidate for South Thanet. Rebecca has been an inspirational campaigner in the area and her local Party and the LRC both regarded this as a grave injustice. Now Rebecca has been cleared of the charge of antisemitism by the NCC.

 Rebecca, who has always denied she is antisemitic, said:

"I feel very relieved that the NCC considered the evidence carefully and reached a fair decision. For nearly a year, I've been living with the suggestion that I might have done something that could prove detrimental to the Labour Party. My supporters and I know I would never do such a thing, quite the opposite. I've been working hard to improve our electoral prospects in Thanet. It's a great weight off my shoulders to be acquitted of all charges."

Now the reasons behind the NEC deciding not to endorse her "seem to have evaporated", the way should now be set fair for her to be recognised by the NEC as Labour’s official candidate. Rebecca added:

"Now that my name has been cleared through the disciplinary process, the next step will be to approach the NEC which refused my endorsement as parliamentary candidate and see if they will reconsider."