Labour tell Guido they are dropping Mandy Richards as their candidate in Worcester. A spokesman says: “The NEC has not endorsed Mandy Richards as the Labour Party candidate for Worcester”. A Labour source says they have decided that, because Richards failed to disclose on her application form anything that had the potential to embarrass the party, she has displayed a displayed a lack of judgement that is not compatible with being a candidate. The selection of a parliamentary candidate for Worcester will be re-run. She’ll be on to her lawyers in no time…

Here is Jeremy Corbyn with ‘MI5 target’ Mandy Richards at an event in the Leader’s Office last year organised by Dawn Butler, who Richards says she used to work for. One is an eccentric leftie who subscribes to outlandish conspiracy theories and spent years campaigning against the British state and security services, the other is Mandy Richards…

Mandy Richards, Labour’s prospective MP for Worcester, has insisted her legal battles with MI5, MI6, the Metropolitan Police, the British Army, Thames Water and her gas, electricity and broadband suppliers, Royal Mail, Hackney council, Progress, her GP and the freeholder of her flat “were all above board”. In a nearly thousand word long statement posted on Facebook, Richards says she discussed the court cases with Labour before she was selected:

“Between 2015 – 2017 there were a number of unexplained incidents in and around my home including home invasion, theft, a car break-in, computer hacking, bike tampering, mail tampering, a fridge fire and electrical surges rendering my computers and mobile phones unusable. This all coincided with a series of serious unexplained health conditions.

For over 18 months I liaised individually and separately with each of the agencies that were ultimately named in the court proceedings of March 2017, following up on repeated requests for assistance and investigation and following all their protocols in place for dealing with claims and complaints. Through this protracted process I was having to endure life threatening levels of loss of blood, unexplained levels of heavy metals in my system and incidents within my home including environmental pollutants, that could potentially have caused loss of life…

This then led onto direct enquiries made to MI5 & MI6 with the same outcome. They would neither confirm nor deny, but stated that if any surveillance activity had taken place it would have been proportionate and within the realms of the law…

As both of the above cases named ‘Progress’, a campaign group associated with the Labour Party, and Hackney Council as respondents, I discussed the matters at length with executive officers from the Party prior to the Worcester selection process commencing. Documents related to both cases have also been in the public domain for some time. I apologise to Labour Party members for any consternation or upset the articles published this weekend may have caused, but I can assure you categorically the cases brought were all above board.”

She is still a Labour candidate tonight…

Corbynista parliamentary candidate Mandy Richards is attracting a lot of attention for her somewhat idiosyncratic views on politics and the British state. Richards was selected by Labour to fight marginal Worcester (majority 2,500) despite the fact she is banned from bringing court cases without a judge’s approval after she made a string of vexatious (AKA bonkers) claims against MI5, the police and even Thames Water and Royal Mail. Guido brings you Mandy’s greatest hits…

• Richards appeared to question the authenticity of media coverage of the Manchester terror attack, tweeting: “can news agencies, police or anyone else for that matter explain why still no image/footage of physical damage at Manchester arena?”
  
• She described the murder of Jo Cox as an “incident conveniently bereft of evidence”. 
• Suggested the death of Joni Sledge (from band Sister Sledge) was the result of a hidden plot. She wrote: “How many more shock celebrity deaths before high incidence called into question?”
• Posted a video suggesting footage of the Westminster terror attack was faked and dishonestly edited. 
• Suggested a scene from the movie Inception shows the state is using “dream manipulation to induce behaviour in military or potential terror attackers”. She claimed the technique ‘cultivates killer soldiers’…
• Richards stood as a Labour candidate in the 2016 London assembly election and lost, after which she immediately brought a High Court action challenging the result. She blamed her loss on a conspiracy between the returning officer and Labour centrist group Progress…
• According to the Sunday Times, she brought failed court cases against MI5, MI6, the Metropolitan Police, the British Army, Thames Water, and her gas, electricity and broadband suppliers, Royal Mail, Hackney council, her GP and the freeholder of her flat. Richards accused the organisations of putting her under surveillance, tampering with her car, bicycle and mail, breaking into her home and failing to stop alleged attempts to poison her…

As a result of her claims she was placed under 14 extended civil restraint orders by the High Court. As of this morning she remains a Labour candidate. One to watch for a Shadow Cabinet job…