Tough test for the compliance unit this: a Labour councillor has deleted a rather un-PC tweet mocking Black Lives Matters protesters. Cllr Kevin Peel is accused by the LibDems of being “racist and contemptuous” for tweeting three laughing face emoticons accompanied by a picture of the protest captioned: “LaShawna, 2nd left, is looking for love with Momentum Matches. Must be local to Nott’ham due to her bail conditions”. When his followers called him out he then deleted the tweet. This isn’t your typical Labour race row story – Cllr Peel is an Owen Smith supporting moderate. The compliance unit swiftly suspends Corbynista councillors, surely they will want to be consistent…

UPDATE: Former LibDem MP and fellow Manchester councillor John Leech weighs in:

“This kind of thoughtless behaviour could cause widespread offence and bring Manchester Council into serious disrepute.”

UPDATE II: A very punchy Labour insider adds:

“Another example of where the word “moderate” is inappropriately used to describe one wing of the party. Calamity Kevin is just the ugly face of Owen Smith’s Progress stormtroopers who tweet before they think. We just want the contest to end as soon as possible before these clowns embarrass our party any further with their gaffes.”

UPDATE III: Cllr Peel offers a lengthy grovelling apology:

“This is clearly an inappropriate and unacceptable image and so I deleted my re-tweet and had no further contact with this account. I am sorry for any offence I may have caused. I am a supporter of the Black Lives Matter movement and am deeply upset that a flippant tweet from myself undermined this support. I apologise for my sharing of this post and I am sorry for offence it caused and any inadvertent upset I have caused. Clearly sharing it was in bad taste and I regret it. However, I want to make clear as a lifelong campaigner against discrimination that I did not say, condone endorse or in any way support a racist message and nor would I. If I gave any impression otherwise then I am truly sorry.”

Labour HQ say that is the end of the matter…

UPDATE IV: That Labour insider gets back in touch:

“One rule for one, another rule for Calamity Kev. I wonder if him having friends at Labour HQ makes a difference.”