A PROMINENT Labour Councillor from Blackpool has been reported to the national party by fellow party members over a series of offensive and antisemitic social media posts.
Councillor David Owen, who is well-known within the party for helping to establish Labour in Blackpool, has been reported to Labour head office for spreading age-old antisemitic conspiracy theories and tropes, including the claim that Jews and Zionists control the mainstream media.
The Councillor has also shared numerous posts by Tony Greenstein, who was suspended from the Labour Party in 2016 following accusations of antisemitism, before being expelled in February 2018 after a review by Labour’s National Constitutional Committee.
Most shockingly, Councillor Owen has also shared posts quoting David Duke – an infamous neo-Nazi.
Duke is a well-known and widely condemned American member of the far-right, as well as being a neo-Nazi, antisemitic conspiracy theorist, convicted felon, and former grand wizard of the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan.
The Anti-Defamation League has described Duke as “perhaps America’s most well-known racist and anti-Semite”.
Councillor Owen has been a sitting Labour councillor for over 40 years, and helped to increase the number of wards in the constituency, which led to the Labour Party gaining a significant number of councillors over the few decades the followed.
Yet Owen’s social media accounts are riddled with antisemitism, conspiracy theories, and the insinuation that Jews who support Israel or who speak out against antisemitism are in some way controlled by Israel and Benjamin Netanyahu.
Labour member Steve Cooke said: “Cllr David Owen is still a member of the Labour group on Blackpool Council six weeks after being reported to the party for blatant and repeated antisemitism. The man even cites neoNazi David Duke in support of his tirades against Jews.”
VoteWatch has contacted the Labour Party for comment. We will update in due course.
