Labour candidate suspended for 'transphobia'

[Imnobody4]

Labour’s London region has suspended the party’s candidate for a closely-contested council by-election in Hackney following allegations of “transphobia“.
Party members were told by email early this morning by Hackney’s borough organiser that “all planned campaign sessions” in the Cazenove ward had been cancelled, including those that were to have taken place today.
A Labour source has confirmed that the candidate, Laura Pascal (front right in photo), has been “administratively suspended”, which means a complaint has been made about her by another party member and a decision taken to investigate it.
The timing of the suspension means there is not enough time to nominate a different candidate in time for the by-election, which will be held next Thursday. This means that if Pascal wins, she will sit as an independent councillor. The source confirmed that Labour will do no further campaigning for her.

https://www.onlondon.co.uk/hackney-labour-cazenove-candidate-for-council-by-election-suspended/

About time KS got a grip.

Many postal voters will have already voted too.

So bloody tedious isn't it? Tedious Labour . As if we haven't enough to be concerned about ! She seem alright ( that is a sane, rational woman not gaslight by this weird ideology ), what little I've read about her ,I would vote for Laura. Shame of Hackney Labour.
Yep, business as usual, Labour pointless- N.T.V. F.

I'm a member of the Labour party in the ward where Laura Pascal is standing and I'm very upset to hear about this. There's not much information available locally about exactly what has happened - the news is very recent. If it is the case that she's been targetted, reported and suspended for her stance on gender and women's rights then I am very disappointed again/still in the Labour party. The election is this week - she still has my vote and I hope that she gets in as an independent candidate.

Reminds me of that logic problem where you have two doors to choose between, and the guard on one door always tells the truth and the other always lies, and you can only ask them one question.

It really is getting that convoluted.

Mine definitely has. It's a wrench but I can't vote for a party that acts like this. Does the Labour Party actually exist anymore? This is terrifying.

I used to live nearby @Clambering . Jessam Ave literally across from Cazenove. Huge Orthodox Jewish community. It's Labour / Conservative split really. Not Green or Libdems territory as you doubtless know already. I see from the tweets piling onto Laura that some of the zealots will vote Green though. Let's hope Laura wins. But it would serve Labour right if the Tories won against the national polls. Perhaps then KS will read the runes.

The article in the OP says that the Lib Dems came close in the last election.

Labour are not the party for women's rights, quite the opposite. Yet so many women vote for them. There should be a women's party it would walk the next election.

This ward (three councillors) used to be all Lib Dem, but Labour took all three posts in 2018. This by-election is because one of the councillors has just taken over as Labour Mayor of Hackney, and she supported Laura Pascal.

Yes except in the case of modern politics @Froodwithatowel where it's more like they both lie most of the time, occasionally tell the truth, usually by accident, and most often don't even know themselves which is which. And if you ask the wrong question you will lose your job / reputation / be burned at the stake.

I saw that @LoobiJee is it a case of Tories staying at home or registering a protest vote though I wonder? I know Clapton/ Stokey is a bit gentrified of course....

Cazanove ward is in Dianne Abbot's constituency. I wonder whether the independent MP suspended by Labour will support Laura as an independent candidate, also suspended by Labour.

WTAF?

I have never voted any way but Labour. It becomes harder and harder. Why should I vote for them when they don’t even support themselves? By abolishing their only candidate in Labour safe seat Hackney?

It’s like something from the Daily Mash. Or it would be if it was funny.

This sort of fuckwittery will see the Tories stay. I am so angry.

I'm wondering if the mechanisms are similar or different. It seemed to me that the GP rules meant that anyone that was accused of anything got automatically suspended (a 'no fault suspension') so that bad actors could repeatedly do this to keep their enemies/targets from involvement in the party.

I would have imagined Labour, as a much larger and better established party, would have more complex and sophisticated systems for assessing an accusation before suspending someone. Surely malicious/unfounded accusations can't always lead to a suspension?

If they can, that's a weakness that peopel will inevitably exploit.
If they can't, then the party has deliberately taken the step to suspend a member for her legally protected gc beliefs.

Another one ready with the shovel, Laura. This is outrageous.

Voted labour since I could vote. They can well and truly fuuuuck off

Laura, if you’re reading this, I will also support any action you might want to take about this. Would be soooo good to make the Labour leadership clarify exactly what they mean when they say they intend to protect women’s rights. Sadly, I think this whole debacle already makes that clear

What is the political gain from doing this so late? Why did they let her get this far if they were only going to do this to her?

Is this a mad purity spiral that they don’t realise they are shooting their own party in the foot or is this a muscle flex to show who is boss?

Labour dont want to be in power do they?

And yet Labour councillors who have been done for fraud and election fixing are merrily still in the job…

Oh my God. Laura is a good friend of mine, although we haven't been in touch recently.

She has been 1000% dedicated to the Labour party for years and years. She's also a really passionate feminist and fully in support of trans people's rights to live their lives freely. To be suspended for stating a biological reality - I have no words.

Social media critics of Pascal have characterised her selection as Labour embracing a “new wave of horrific transphobia” and have accused her of “bullying trans women“. In social media exchanges, Pascal has said: “trans women are not female. By definition they are male”.

Stating transwomen are male, a biological fact, is a "new wave of horrific transphobia".

I once got laughed at for saying the gender cult employs hyperbolic victimization...

I noticed that the LabourUK subreddit were gunning for her a couple of days ago.

Went to look at her Twitter and saw she was a well established local campaigner for the party who has previously stood in other hackney council seats (where I am in the NW Labour candidates are often expected to have a try at an unlikely-to-win seat to learn the ropes before being nominated for an easier win seat so I would imagine similar happens elsewhere). She looked popular and openly GC so I figured that any last minute complaints about her would be dismissed as obviously bollocks.

I was clearly wrong! Hopefully she’ll win as an independent and then the party will come grovelling back when no wrongdoing is found 🙄

https://www.reddit.com/r/LabourUK/s/qGra5aiTOk

(the above subreddit is largely populated by people who hate Labour for being too centrist/not batshit enough)

.

I expect she’ll be cleared eventually (see Rosie Duffield’s recent suspension) it’s just difficult timing with the election so close and the party taking so bloody long to deal with complaints (even when they are preposterous).

Laura is clearly well-liked in her local party so the lack of party support on election day (Get The Vote Out, lifts to the polling station for people with mobility issues etc) is a massive bummer. Perhaps a few party friends will still do leaflet drops for her (but that’s probably a potential party suspension offence too). Might be some GC former members locally who could step up? Loads of women
have left my branch/CLP due to the party’s disregard for women’s
rights.

if she stands as a (temporary) independent and wins that will at least be a metaphorical poke in the eye for the TRAs who reported her, and as it’s too late to get a new Labour candidate Laura won’t fall foul of the not running against/not campaigning against an official Labour candidate.