Mick Hartley

That's Durham Labour Party county councillor Lyn Boyd:

The county councillor was reported to the Labour Party on 2 February over a trove of material allegedly shared on her Facebook timeline. She was accused on Monday of promoting a “wide range of antisemitic tropes and far-fetched theories that you would expect from a far-right activist.”

But when reached for comment, Boyd said: “I can assure you that as an ardent anti racist I would never post anything that was antisemitic on Facebook. Therefore I have no idea where these vile slurs have originated.”

Describing the allegation as “vile”, she said that while she would not be seeking re-election in 2021, she will “continue to campaign against any form of racism or antisemitic behaviour.”

She later added she didn’t “know” whether she was the holder of the Facebook account behind the posts. “I have challenged and got rid of people who I considered to be anti semiotic, [sic] think the claims are vile because of my lifelong abhorrence of anti racism and any form of anti semitism,” she said.

Among the social media posts discovered was a shared Facebook post about George Michael. It states: “If you ever wondered why you heard little from George in later years, it was because he opposed illegal wars by the Zionists, eg, Iraq, Palestine, etc.”  […]

A post from 2016 denounces the “current fearmongering about antisemitism in the Labour Party for what it is – a conscious and concerted effort by right-wing political forces to undermine the growing support among Jews and non-Jews alike for the Labour Party leadership of Jeremy Corbyn, and a measure of the desperation of his opponents.”

Another post shared the same year contains a link to a video of a German Shepherd mauling a child, with the caption: “This is how the Israeli Zionist attack Palestinian children. You won’t see this in the mainstream media as they control most of it. Please watch and share.”

Anti-semiotic? They can't read the writing on the wall, some of these Labour councillors.