Labour was plunged into a furious row today as a local party chief was suspended for tweeting about a senior female MP being beheaded by Islamist terrorists.
Ian McKenzie, chairman of the Lewisham East constituency which is about to stage a key by-election, faces disciplinary action over two “misogynistic” tweets in which he wrote that Emily Thornberry was “too old” to be considered a sex slave by Islamic State.
In one post from 2016, he wrote that Ms Thornberry, now shadow foreign secretary, was: “too old for ISIS. They won’t make a sex slave of her. They’ll behead her and dump her in a mass grave.”
In another message from 2015, he said: “Maybe she’d agree sex slavery to one man only, provided he didn’t sell her on or insist on gang rape.”
Mr McKenzie backed local campaigner Janet Daby who was selected to replace Heidi Alexander MP in next months’ by-election, fending off bids by hard-left hopefuls in an all women short-list.
A former adviser to John Prescott, he was a key figure in the selection battle on Saturday that saw Mr Corbyn’s left-wing choice for the ultra-safe seat being outvoted
Supporters claimed the tweets from Mr McKenzie’s Twitter account had since been unearthed to discredit him.
Left-wing commentator Owen Jones republished the posts on his own account, leading to a frenzied war of words on social media.
The party today confirmed that the senior Labour activist had been suspended.
Mr McKenzie spent this morning tweeting that he had no idea what was happening, before the party officially informed him of the decision in an email sent at 9.25am.
He wrote: “I now know what the issue is and will clarify my position as soon as I can. Thank you to everyone who is sending private or public messages of support.”
Mandu Reid, who is running for the Women’s Equality Party in the Lewisham East by-election, called the tweets “abhorrent”.
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Left-wing activist Aaron Bastani, who had backed one of the other candidates Sakina Sheikh in the selection battle, wrote on Twitter: “Personally I don’t think that anyone publishing that bile belongs in a progressive party.”
Rokshana Fiaz, the new mayor of Newham who had recently hired Mr McKenzie as a policy adviser, said he had also stepped down from his role after the comments emerged.
She said: “I have accepted his decision as being the right one in this instance.”
The by-election to replace Ms Alexander, who is taking up a deputy mayor of London role with Sadiq Khan, takes place on June 14.
Mr McKenzie’s suspension is the latest twist in the party’s ongoing rift between centrist and left-wing factions.
