Councillor suspended after 'antisemitism' complaint

A senior Labour councillor has been suspended from the party over comments allegedly made in a WhatsApp group that were described as antisemitic in complaints.

Carol Henshaw, who was cabinet member for climate change at Preston City Council, made the comments while discussing a 10 August demonstration outside a bank where protesters were demanding release of Israeli hostages, the Local Democracy Reporting Service said.

A transcript later found its way to Preston Labour member Harry Spillman, who submitted a formal question about the matter to a meeting of the council on Thursday.

Henshaw lost the Labour whip late last week, and there is an ongoing investigation.

The BBC made efforts to contact Henshaw and an automated email reply said she was "taking time off for health reasons".

In his question submitted to the council's leader, Mr Spillman, who identifies as a "secular Jew", had condemned what he described as an "outpouring of antisemitic bile".

The council had accepted the question at the start of last week, but, 24 hours before the meeting, blocked it over concerns that it could "prejudice" the investigation by the regional Labour Party, which the authority said was only made aware of on Wednesday.

Mr Spillman told the LDRS he had first raised the matter last summer and was dismayed that the local Labour leadership had "failed to deal with" it.

Ms Parmenter said Mr Spillman would be free to ask his question again once the party's investigation had ended.

The LDRS has been told a separate complaint was also made to the national party in January by a different Preston resident.

The Labour Party said in a statement: "The Labour Party takes all complaints extremely seriously and they are fully investigated in line with our rules and procedures.

"Where behaviour is found to have fallen below the high standards we expect, action will always be taken in line with Labour Party rules."

Henshaw is now listed as sitting as an independent according to the council's website.

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