Rebecca Gordon-Nesbitt was removed as the Labour’s candidate in the target seat of South Thanet in the midst of an anti-semitism row. Last year Guido revealed she was running a ‘think tank’ which defended Ken Livingstone and Jackie Walker and questioned the “Zionist sympathies” of Jewish MPs. In response Labour’s NEC surprisingly took action…

Yesterday Gordon-Nesbitt was selected again for the seat, despite being blocked by Labour’s NEC just one year ago. Guido understands lobbying from the Shadow Chancellor was crucial in turning around her fortunes…

McDonnell bailing out his dodgy allies and securing the adoration of the nastier side of his party…

Yesterday Labour’s NEC decided not to endorse Rebecca Gordon-Nesbitt as a candidate on the basis that she had brought the Labour Party into disrepute. In a late night posting on Facebook she blamed Guido for her demise as a candidate:

“The NEC’s decision was taken on the basis of three tweets that were posted from the Centre for Cultural Change Twitter account, run by a group of academics, to which I occasionally contributed well before I decided to stand as a parliamentary candidate. The Centre for Cultural Change tweets were in no way intended to imply that antisemitism doesn’t exist in the Labour Party. They were taken out of context on the right-wing Guido Fawkes hate blog to imply that I was antisemitic.”

Well you can judge for yourself why the NEC really dropped her as a candidate by reading our original story where she attacked, for example, the “zionist sympathies” of John Bercow and asked “Has anyone looked into Hitler’s policy on Zionism?” Credit where credit is due, Guido was not convinced the new NEC would take decisive action. The prospect of her fighting a crucial target swing seat obviously focused minds…

Yesterday Guido revealed Labour’s new parliamentary candidate in South Thanet Rebecca Gordon-Nesbitt runs a ‘think tank’ which defended Ken Livingstone and Jackie Walker and questioned the “Zionist sympathies” of Jewish MPs. Well, the think tank’s website – registered by Gordon-Nesbitt – has now been taken offline, and its Twitter account which sent the offending tweets has been deleted.

The internet never forgets – you can still see the tweets here.

No comment from either Gordon-Nesbitt or Labour. Tell us again how you’re taking anti-Semitism seriously…

Latest in Guido’s Candidate Watch series: Labour’s newly-selected parliamentary candidate in South Thanet runs a pro-Corbyn ‘think tank’ which repeatedly defended Ken Livingstone and Jackie Walker during their anti-Semitism scandals and questioned the “Zionist sympathies” of John Bercow. Rebecca Gordon-Nesbitt, a socialist historian who wrote a book praising Castro, was selected in Thanet earlier this month after joining the Labour Party when Corbyn became leader. She also runs a think tank called The Centre for Cultural Change. Whois records show Gordon-Nesbitt registered its website and there are no other staff listed at the organisation. Its Twitter account has repeatedly promoted Gordon-Nesbitt.

Let’s have a look at some of the tweets from their account. It has repeatedly defended Jackie Walker and said allegations of anti-Semitism are motivated by “those who seek to silence anti-Zionist voices”.

Tweeting at Thanet Labour, the account said anti-Semitism allegations are “an attempt to discredit the left”. This line of argument has been specifically condemned by the Labour leadership in recent weeks.

It has tweeted about John Bercow’s “Zionist sympathies” and implied his links to Israel stopped an investigation into Israeli influence in Britain. The Speaker is Jewish, so these tweets are especially grim…

And it has defended Ken, asking “Has anyone looked into Hitler’s policy on Zionism? Might not be mutually exclusive with his later actions”.

Assume Gordon-Nesbitt will be deselected if Corbyn is really taking anti-Semitism seriously…