Luke Akehurst: The Butt of many a Joke, but he’s no Laughing Matter.
The Labour Party NEC Elections reach a critical point tomorrow as the ballots open, papers start to arrive and votes start being cast. After seeing the level of appeasition and not opposition within Labour, I hope members are aware of just how critical it is we have a robust, left-wing NEC and will be casting their votes for the Grassroots Voice slate as their first 6 choices under this STV system that’s been forced on us by the right wing & for Mark McDonald as their 7th choice. There are of course 9 votes to cast should you wish to cast all 9.
That brings me to this blog, which isn’t another promo for the left-wingers I back, but a reminder that should we get this wrong, things are all but over for the left and the biggest threat to all that is one man, a man who has been the butt of many a joke, many a meme on social media, a man who is so deeply unpopular within his local Party that his own CLP refused to back him for the NEC elections, but nevertheless he crossed the threshold anyway and is on the ballot. A man who has been described to me as probably the most dangerous man in the Labour Party today and he isn’t even an MP. His name is Luke Akehurst.
It’s a name many on the left are familiar with. There’s been many a titter about the fact that he’s put himself forward yet again to stand for the NEC, since he’s consistently failed to claw his way back onto it since he got booted off in 2012 but actually, with Starmer now leader and with fractured relations within the left-wing groups earlier this year, two of his Labour to Win slate colleagues already sit on the NEC and they’ve been a nuisance, even going so far as attempting recently to push all business back until November, when they hope the new NEC will be even more right wing, a situation they helped bring about by switching to that STV vote instead of the traditional FPTP system previously used — a blatant attempt to favour their own faction. I’ve heard it said that all the jokes, all the finger-pointing and laughing at Luke is to distract from the other awful candidates on his slate, but if Akehurst were to join any of these guys back on the NEC now, it’d be disastrous.
So who is Luke Akehurst?
He’s a right-wing Labour activist, a former councillor in Hackney, where he tried multiple times to have incumbent MP Diane Abbot deselected. He’s a former prospective parliamentary candidate, a former NEC member, a former organiser within Keir Starmer’s CLP under his predecessor Frank Dobson before moving to Oxford, where he was the CLP secretary before being routed from the role by an increased left-wing membership.
The names of the right-wing Labour groups Labour First & Progress are familiar to most of us. The mainstream media is fond of referencing them when speaking to certain MP’s and essentially paints a picture of their views being the political mainstream of the Labour Party, when of course they’re not, these are the right-wing organisations and Luke is involved here too, being the Secretary of Labour First, who’s about us blurb on their main page literally states that:
‘Labour First is a network which exists to ensure that the voices of moderate party members are heard while the party is kept safe from the organised hard left, and those who seek to divert us from the work of making life better for ordinary working people and their families.’
Safe from the organised hard left, who Akehurst himself in 2016 defined as:
‘The “Hard Left” is a self-definition adopted by the Bennite left in the mid-1980s to differentiate themselves from the older “Soft Left” which they saw as making too many compromises with people like us! In parliament the Campaign Group for Labour Democracy is “Hard Left” and the Tribune Group is “Soft Left” whilst most of our supporters are in the Clause I group of MPs. We believe the “Hard Left” would damage national security through their opposition to nuclear deterrence and their ambivalent stance towards NATO; that they are reluctant to address issues around immigration in any meaningful way; and their economic stance is not credible as it veers towards a command economy.’
A bit wordy, but the Campaign Group for Labour Democracy is the Socialist Campaign Group, those that actually voted against Keir Starmer’s abstentions recently, including the likes of Diane Abbott, Jeremy Corbyn, Richard Burgon and Zarah Sultana and Luke, together with Labour First, are ideologically opposed to listening to the left, going so far as to describe them as dangerous. Literally the best hope we’ve had in decades of a better life, a better country to live in, a transformative agenda and this bunch call that a threat, claiming they offer the best hope when, whilst in power, did nothing of the sort. That whole Broad Church diatribe is a nonsense and always has been. The NEC slate Luke is part of, the Labour to Win slate, is the Labour First/Progress slate, this is their core belief, so you can see why any of them securing NEC seats would be incredibly dangerous for left-wingers who have stayed in the Party.
We’ve only scratched the surface here with Luke however because although we’ve explored Luke’s political beliefs and positions he’s held or still holds, he’s been much more than just that.
Luke has been a corporate lobbyist, having worked for Weber Shandwick Public Affairs from 2000 through to 2011, as a defence specialist, briefly overlapping his time on the NEC and certainly covering the period in time he was a PPC for New Labour in 2001 and 2005. Hark back to that quote regarding Luke’s view of the hard left and keep in mind that defence specialist bit as we continue here.
To give you an impression of how influential this lobbying firm Weber Shandwick has been, particularly regarding New Labour and Blairism, of which Luke is a staunch supporter to this day, you only need look at who else has worked for them. It’s current CEO, Colin Byrne, describes himself as a hippy in a suit and has been quoted as saying:
“Of course some PRs do send out vacuous rubbish and bogus surveys dressed up as a story. Of course some political PRs do try and manipulate the news.”
Which kinda brings into question how ethical a CEO he might be. He was also a former flatmate to the Prince of Darkness himself, Peter Mandelson, Blair’s answer to Dominic Cummings.
Other employees for this firm have been Andrew Brown, brother to Gordon Brown, Current Home Secretary and immigrant basher Priti Patel and chair for the backbench 1922 committee Sir Graham Brady. It used to be the case that many people, myself included, couldn’t put a fag paper between the Tories and Labour back then and when lobbying firms like this, employing such people as this, and indeed Luke Akehurst, it’s hardly surprising to see why that was. The last thing we need is a return to that, we’re seeing enough of that under Starmer now, without Luke’s influence returning to enable that further.
Whilst at Weber Shandwick he picked up a number of high profile clients, such as Finmeccanica, an Italian defence and security company which had strong ties to the Gaddafi regime in Libya. Arms sales. Another was GKN, a British Company involved in, amongst other things, the aerospace industry. It was at one point the parent company for AgustaWestland, which it later sold to…Finmeccanica. Previous to this, GKN were also involved in the sale of water cannons to the regime of Indonesian despot Suharto in the 90’s, when he was committing genocide in East Timor, so arms sales here too, albeit before Luke’s time. Luke also had as a client the now infamous Serco. Now we know Serco seems to involved in everything these days, but what you might not know is that Serco is part of a consortium operating Britain’s Atomic Research Establishment, a scientific research facility that is responsible for the design, manufacture and support of our nuclear deterrent. Yeah — Serco is involved in our nuclear deterrent, what could go wrong there, but also in the consortium overseeing this is Lockheed Martin, the worlds biggest arms manufacturer. It’s little wonder Akehurst earned himself the nickname ‘Luke the Nuke’. It wasn’t just about his support for selling arms to Saudi Arabia, or the Iraq War in case you thought it was — something he still defends to this day, though knowing what you do now about his links to arms manufacturers, it isn’t hard to see why. He took these ‘defence’ clients with him after leaving Weber Shandwick, but it isn’t known whether he’s still advising them — he’s certainly not admitting to it on his LinkedIn!
So he’s left Weber Shandwick by 2011, but by that same year he’d been headhunted, ‘enticed’ to come to work for BICOM by it’s then CEO Lorna Fitzsimmons, herself a former Labour MP under Tony Blair.
BICOM is the British Israel Communications and Research Centre and it was founded in 2002 by the Billionaire Poju Zabludowicz, who inherited his vast fortune from his father Shlomo, who founded the family business Soltam, an Israeli defence contractor now owned by Israel’s top weapons manufacturer Elbit. Luke and the arms industry just keep walking in lockstep don’t they. Zabludowicz is resident in the UK, one of the richest people in the country and a regular donor to the Tory Party. An investigation by the journalist Peter Oborne discovered in 2009 that Zabludowicz also has a stake in a shopping centre built in occupied Palestinian territory in the West Bank.
BICOM is essentially a public relations body for Israel and at a time when Israel is increasing hostility towards Palestine, who’s lands they’ve illegally occupied since 1967, it says something of the sort of people who want to help them do that and anyone working for BICOM is doing just that. They have the ear of politicians, with strong links to Labour Friends of Israel — heck, some politicians work for them! I’ve mentioned Lorna Fitzsimmons already, but the most prominent MP of recent times has been Ruth Smeeth, most recently seen introducing Keir Starmer at his digital conference speech.
She lost her seat last December, so look out for her the moment a by-election opens up, but she has also been BICOM’s director of public affairs and campaigns. They also have the ear of journalists, seeking a sympathetic outlook towards Israel, something they clearly feel they’d lost around the time they recruited Luke, since the BICOM conference of 2011 was titled ‘Winning back Britain for Israel’. So they’re clearly patriots…just not necessarily to this country.
Luke was recruited by BICOM to set up We Believe in Israel, something he does proudly boast of in his LinkedIn profile and this is BICOM’s pro-Israel advocacy arm and having set it up, Luke has remained the director ever since, the self-declared Zionist Shitlord, here pictured next to Matt Pound, part of Keir Starmer’s campaign team.
We Believe In Israel push for things like no sanctions on Israel, arguing against an arms embargo on Israel, arguing for solidarity with Israeli’s under attack and so on and so forth. They also provide material to the likes of the Board of Deputies. If the arms manufacturing links haven’t put you off, if the attacks on the Labour left haven’t put you off, if supporting those who would support the Labour left hasn’t put you off, then the partisan support for a wealthy nation, a nuclear power no less, which has settled illegally occupied lands should disgust you. Akehurst has even gone as far as defending the occupation by saying that the Geneva Convention does not apply on the basis that it was designed to stop forced deportations of the sort undertaken by Hitler and Stalin, despite Israel having never having transferred its civilian population. The Red Cross, the UN and the International Court of Justice have all weighed in to disagree with this assertion.
This is what you get if you vote for Luke Akehurst or any of those happy to stand on a platform with him under the Labour to Win slate. Pro-Israel, anti-Palestine, anti-socialist, pro-war, pro-lobbying Torylitism. A world where the truth becomes distorted and free speech is a lie.
What on Earth are we winning by electing these right-wingers, because it’ll be the death of the Party, a renewal of the purges and the end of any semblance of a left wing party in UK politics. The mistakes they made which led to Corbyn becoming leader will never happen again. We’ve one, last shot at retaining our clout and that involves ensuring the sovereign body of our Party, our NEC, is dominated by left-wing voices once again. Make sure your first 6 votes go to the Grassroots Voice slate. Make your 7th vote for Mark McDonald. Choose from anyone other than the Labour to Win slate for your last two votes. Do not take a chance with this. It really is our last roll of the dice. For heaven’s sake use that vote when it comes. The most dangerous man in Labour and his slate mustn’t come anywhere near power ever again.
If you enjoy my work, feel like it and can do so without hardship, please also consider contributing to the ongoing development of the page, or just buy me a coffee.
This blog has been ranked 10th in the top 35 UK Political Blogs by Feedspot.com! Not bad going for someone who’s only been going a few months! Do check out some of the other blogs I’m listed alongside, be one of the best informed people out there!
