Row after deputy council leader shares far-right post
THE Labour Party has launched an investigation after it emerged that its deputy county council group leader in Carmarthenshire shared a social media posting from the notorious far-right party Britain First.
Tegwen Devichand, who represents a ward in Llanelli, shared an image from the group which depicts a table at which American Death Row prisoners are executed by lethal injection and an electric chair, together with the message: “When a dog attacks a child it is put down. Shouldn’t we do the same with sex predators?”
At the weekend we revealed how another Labour activist in the Llanelli constituency, Michaela Beddows, had been suspended after sharing a posting from the far-right English Defence League, and inviting Ukip Assembly leader Neil Hamilton to visit the village of Llangennech and meet campaigners who opposed converting the local primary school from “dual stream” into Welsh medium.
Another Labour county councillor, Kim Thomas, described the change in the school’s status as “apartheid”.
Plaid Cymru MP Jonathan Edwards, who represents the neighbouring constituency of Carmarthen East and Dinefwr, said: “Not only have Labour activists been colluding with Ukip, over the course of the weekend we have seen Labour members and an elected councillor exposed for sharing the propaganda of ultra-right groups such as the English Defence League and Britain First. This is in addition to another elected councillor branding Labour’s own education policy as ‘apartheid’.
“How bad do things have to get, and how much more fascist material must Labour representatives share, before the party’s AM, MP and the First Minister put a stop to it?
“There are undoubtedly many honourable Labour members who are as horrified as the rest of us that their party’s representatives are involved in such repulsive activities.
“The Llanelli Labour Party has deep-rooted issues. Indeed if Llanelli Labour was a public service, the First Minister would put it into special measures. In order to hold on to a shred of integrity, the party’s officials must enforce a zero tolerance policy and implement wholesale suspensions and deselections.
“As it stands, Labour’s campaign against Welsh medium education appears to be a front for the perpetuation of ugly, fascist propaganda. Labour head office must take swift and immediate action to stamp this out.”
A Labour Party spokeswoman said: “The Labour Party takes all complaints of this nature very seriously. The local party in Llanelli have made us aware of complaints and an investigation is underway.”
Ms Beddows said: “I am naive when it comes to politics and didn’t realise what the English Defence League was when I shared their post on social media. It showed a homeless ex-soldier and I had sympathy with the message.”
The message suggested that the homeless ex-soldier was more worthy of help than foreign refugees.
“I’ve had a lot of people having a go at me on social media since it became known that I shared the English Defence League post, and it’s been very upsetting.”
Ms Beddows said she had become involved in the campaign to keep her local primary school “dual stream” because of her belief that parents should have a choice about whether their children should be educated through the medium of Welsh or not.
“I’m not against the Welsh language or Welsh education, but as a non-Welsh speaker I believe I’m not able to support my children through Welsh education.”
She said she had contacted Mr Hamilton after the council voted to convert her local school into a Welsh medium one: “He brings publicity whatever he does,” she said.
Ms Beddows said she thought she had left the Labour Party last year, and wasn’t interested in returning to it.
“I was going to stand for the community council as an independent, but I’m not sure I want to after all this trouble,” she said.
Neither Ms Devichand nor Ms Thomas responded to detailed messages we left for them.
A spokesman for Mr Edwards pointed out that he had not named Ms Beddows in an open letter he wrote to Jeremy Corbyn about the situation at Llangennech.