Labour sacks candidate who cast doubts over murder of MP Jo Cox
LABOUR has sacked a Midlands candidate who appeared to promote conspiracy theories about the murder of MP Jo Cox, the Westminster terror attack and the Manchester Arena bombing.
Mandy Richards will no longer be the party’s Parliamentary candidate in Worcester.
She was chosen by local party members to fight the key marginal seat but Labour’s National Executive Committee (NEC) has refused to confirm her nomination.
A Labour spokesperson said that the party would look at toughening up the selection process, with new General Secretary Jennie Formby considering whether it should be “more robust”.
It comes after Worcester’s former Labour MP, Mike Foster, said Ms Richards should be “sacked immediately”.
In 2017, after a terrorist murdered five people including a police officer at Westminster, she tweeted a video with the caption: “Westminster ‘terror attack’ investigation. Are we being lied to again?”. Ms Richards added the comment: “Glad someone asking right questions about terror coverage. Jo Cox incident conveniently bereft of evidence too.”
This was a reference to the murder of MP Jo Cox by a rightwing extremist in 2016.
Following the terrorist bombing of Manchester Arena, which killed 23, she tweeted: “Can news agencies, police or anyone else for that matter explain why still no images/footage of physical damage at Manchester Arena?”.
Ms Richards is also the subject of a high court restraining order, and has been banned from bringing court actions without the permission of a judge after she spent an estimated £500,000 in taxpayers’ cash on false claims.
She had alleged that MI5, MI6, the Metropolitan Police, the Army, Thames Water, the Royal Mail, Hackney Council, her GP and others were harassing her.
Worcester is a marginal seat where Labour are the challeng- ers. It is held by the Conservatives with a majority of 2,490.
Labour politician Mike Foster was the city’s MP from 1997 to 2010 and had demanded the party sack Ms Richards.
He said on Twitter: “We cannot gift the Tories the seat like this. It’s devastating.”
People applying to become Labour candidates are asked by the interview panel to disclose anything in their background which could embarrass themselves or the party in the media, or bring the Party into disrepute.
Ms Richards is said to have failed to disclose any information in response to that question. But the case raises questions about Labour’s selection process, because information about her was easily available on the internet.