Labour say the Blairite chairman of Lewisham East CLP has been suspended pending an investigation into his tweets about Emily Thornberry. UPDATE 0824: A Labour spokesman gets in touch to clarify that he hasn’t been suspended yet. UPDATE 0940: He has indeed now been suspended. Chaos at Labour HQ…

Ian McKenzie is loathed by the left because he limited the power of Momentum and Corbynistas within Lewisham party – this paid off when moderate Janet Daby defeated both left-backed candidates in the parliamentary selection. Since the result became clear McKenzie has been targeted on social media by prominent Corbyn outriders including Aaron Bastani and Owen Jones. Corbynistas widely shared tweets where McKenzie wrote: “Emily Thornberry is too old for Isis. They won’t make a sex slave of her. They’ll behead her and dump her in a mass grave.” McKenzie also wrote: “Maybe she’d agree sex slavery to one man only, provided he didn’t sell her on or insist on gang rape.” 

A Labour spokesperson said: “The Labour Party takes all complaints of abuse and discrimination extremely seriously. Any complaints are fully investigated and any appropriate disciplinary action taken in line with our rules and procedures”. No delay when it comes to cracking down on moderates…