The Labour party continues to find itself embroiled in scandal. From harassment and antisemitism to fraud and even child abuse, MPs, Councillors and mayors have frequently found themselves either arrested, suspended, or the focus of scandal in the past twelve months. 

Below you will find a list containing the majority of cases ranging from December 2019 to the present.

2022-2023

Cllr Tom Dewey, Hackney

Labour Party Councillor Tom Dewey, far-right, admitted to possessing indecent images of children.

VoteWatch earlier reported that Tom Dewey, 36, was charged as part of an NCA investigation into child abuse photographs found at his home. He briefly served as a councillor in Hackney before resigning over the incident – attempting to hide the true reason by citing “personal reasons.”

After years of Labour campaigning, Dewey was elected as a councillor for the De Beauvoir ward in May 2022. However, a month before he was elected to the council, in April 2022, NCA officials detained him at his Hackney house before releasing him while the case was being investigated.

As with most resignations relating to one of their politicians, the national Labour Party failed to disclose the reason behind his suspension – worryingly concealing Dewey’s paedophilia from the local public.

During his trial, Dewey admitted to downloading thousands of child abuse and beatiality images, including images of the torture of children.

Shockingly, however, the disgraced Labour Councillor managed to avoid a prison sentence. Read the full story here.

Cllr Ismail Bax, Preston

The Preston councillor was suspended from the Labour Party over a tweet in the wake of Jerusalem synagogue attack.

Cllr Bax, who represents Preston’s Deepdale ward, was suspended for supporting posts on social media that tried to justify the murder of Jews. Read the full story here.

Cllr Hassan Ahmed, Nottingham

Expelled Nottingham Labour councillor Hassan Ahmed says he would have challenged city council leadership.

In the same month, a Labour Councillor from Nottingham was expelled from the party for joining a banned group that seeks to downplay antisemitism. Read the full story here.

Cllr Daniel Barwell, Doncaster

In March, Doncaster Labour Councillor Daniel Barwell was sentenced over a ‘global drug trafficking conspiracy’. His arrest was requested by American authorities. Read the full story here.

Dianne Abbott, Hackney

Diane Abbott remains suspended from the Labour Party.

Who could forget the suspension of Diane Abbott after being accused of antisemitism. Read our exclusive report after speaking to a Labour insider here.

Cllr David Beckett, Darlington

Councillor David Beckett, who has worked alongside Angela Rayner, was suspended for calling King Charles a ‘n*nce’ on social media and urging people not to swear their allegiance to the crown. Read the full story here.

Cllr John Gillat, Bolton

During the local elections, Labour Councillor John Gillat was suspended in Bolton after being caught on camera stealing his rival’s campaign leaflets from the letterboxes of his constituents, in an attempt to influence the election. Read the full story here.

Cllr and Parliamentary Candidate Tom Hayes, Bournemouth

Gillat wasn’t the only ‘letterbox burglar’. Also caught in the act was Bournemouth Labour Councillor Tom Hayes, who at the time was also a Parliamentary candidate. Read the full story here.

Cllr David Jones, Conwy, Wales

The Glyn-y-Marl ward Labour councillor posted the song onto his Facebook “story” on Thursday, together with a photo of Conwy Castle – five days after King Charles III was crowned. The Labour councillor’s post read: “Kill the King, Tear Him Down, Kill the King, yeah, Strike him Down.” Read the full story here.

A Mystery Labour MP

In May, the Metropolitan Police announced they would not investigate an allegation of sexual assault reported by a female Labour MP against a ‘Popular’ Labour frontbench MP, “at the victim’s request”. Read the full story here.

Labour MP Bambos Charalambous

Labour shadow minister Bambos Charalambous was suspended after complaint about his conduct.

Shortly after Sir Keir Starmer received growing pressure surrounding the sex assault scandal, Labour frontbencher/Shadow foreign minister Bambos Charalambous was “administratively suspended” from the party pending an investigation. Read the full story here.

Cllr Mohammed Iqbal, Lancashire

The Labour councillor previously received an MBE at Windsor Castle.

Over in Lancashire, Labour Cllr Mohammed Iqbal, who was suspended by Labour after making anti-Semitic comments at a meeting, was shockingly allowed to work on Labour’s campaign team, even wearing a red rosette with them and acting as a counter on election night. Read the full story here.

Labour MP Stephen Doughty

In the same month, VoteWatch exclusively revealed MP Stephen Doughty lied to the police & to Parliament when claiming he’d only once illegally taken drugs from a vulnerable constituent. In fact he’d been doing it for years. Read our exclusive here.

Cllr Jim Hobson, Blackpool

Councillor Jim Hobson, who was re-elected to represent Bloomfield ward at the May 4 local elections, was administratively suspended after being caught ‘blacking up’ at a party. Read the full story here.

Council Leader Arooj Shah, Oldham

Meanwhile, the Lab leader of Oldham Council came under fire over her close relationship with a criminal previously imprisoned for helping serial killer Dale Cregan. Cregan tortured his victims and murdered two policewoman. Read the full story here.

Cllr Gareth Lewis, Wales

Over in Wales, Labour Councillor Gareth Lewis was placed under investigation after police were called by staff whom he’d been abusive too in an Indian restaurant. Lewis left without paying. His defence was that he was heavily drunk. Read the full story here.

Cllr John Robert Reynolds, Lancashire

In Lancashire, a Labour Councillor and Labour parliamentary candidate received NO prison sentence, despite grooming a 14-year-old boy on Tinder. Click here to read why.

MP Charlotte Nichols, Warrington

Labour MP Charlotte Nichols got into a bit of bother after it was revealed she’d had a relationship with a Tory staffer. But that was the least of her troubles – The MP was proven to have broken electoral laws by lying on her nomination papers. Police sought to prosecute her but were blocked by a judge. Read our shocking exclusive here.

Council Leader Russell Bowden, Warrington

Charlotte’s campaign manager then stood trial for the same offence. But, surprise surprise, he also managed to dodge justice. Read the full story here.

Deputy Mayor Shakil Ahmed, Rochdale

Cllr Ahmed was placed under official investigation – however, Labour still haven’t revealed why. Ahmed previously came to the public’s attention after his son was arrested alongside other family members attempting to join ISIS. Read the full story here.

Cllr Philip O’Dell, Harrow

Cllr Phillip O’Dell previously represented Wealdstone North’s Harrow ward under the Labour flag, but is currently classified as an independent.

It is still unknown what acts are being investigated because Cllr O’Dell would not react to questions when asked and the Labour Party have refused to explain the incident. Despite the fact that his party is listed as an independent on the council’s website, he stated that he is “still a Labour Party member so not an independent.” Read the full story here.

Cllr Celia Hibbert, Wolverhampton

Celia Hibbert, who was re-elected to Wolverhampton Council’s Penn Ward in last month’s local elections, has been suspended for “unspecified reasons.” Click here to read what we know so far.

Cllr Fazila Loonat, Batley and Spen

 A friend of the late Jo Cox, Loonat was sentenced to an immediate jail term following her participation in a “prolonged and sustained attempt” to manipulate the outcome of a case of speeding.

Two months ago, a Labour Councillor stood trial charged with sexually abusing children.

79-year-old Ron Grahame was charged with a string of alleged serious sex offences against a minor girl in the 1980s, including attempted rape. Read the full story here.

Cllr Aftab Nawaz & Cllr Khizar Hussain, Walsall

Cllr Aftab Nawaz, the head of the local Labour Party, and Cllr Khizar Hussain, his deputy, denied distributing literature connected to an extremist  Islamist organisation that targets the Ahmadis and chanting anti-Ahmadi slurs.

The accusations were made in response to an incident that occurred last month in Park Street in the heart of the city, where two stalls were set up close to one another, one operated by a group of Muslims, including the two council members, and the other by the Ahmadiyya Muslim Association Walsall. Read the full story here.

Labour Candidate Adam Buckenham, Salisbury

In July, Labour candidate Adam Buckenham, 47, appeared in Salisbury Crown Court on Friday, July 14, after being found guilty of eight counts of rape and three counts of assault by penetration. Read the full shocking story here.

Council Leader Shabir Pandor, Kirklees

Cllr Pandor, the council’s leader since 2018, made a shock resignation statement while the council struggles to deal with a £46 million budgetary hole that is leading to the redundancies of 750 staff.

Pandor’s resignation was announced just one week after the council as a whole questioned his judgement, with Councillors accusing him of having  “wilfully misled” the council on the suspension of Fazila Loonat, a Labour councillor from Batley East who was recently sentenced to prison for falsifying records related to a speeding ticket. Read the full story here.

Cllr Raymond Moon, Tunbridge Wells

Cllr Moon was recently suspended from the Labour group for sponsoring a charity screening of “Oh Jeremy Corbyn: the Big Lie” at the Tunbridge Wells Forum.

Produced by Platform Films, the documentary includes interviews with former and current Labour activists and staff close to Mr. Corbyn, and is narrated by comedian Alexei Sayle. Featuring director Ken Loach, the movie discusses widespread allegations of antisemitism against Mr Corbyn but, despite the wealth of evidence, argues that there was a conspiracy to discredit Corbyn’s leadership. Read the full story here.

Cllr David Morton, Hammersmith and Fulham

Cllr David Morton, who represents constituents in Hammersmith and Fulham, used his Twitter account to ‘like’ and retweet multiple posts that were racist, transphobic, and homophobic, along with Covid conspiracy theories and antisemitism.

Cllr Morton also recently ‘liked’ a tweet claiming that the recorded number of Jews who died during the Holocaust was false, two days after he had been suspended by Labour for allegedly engaging in anti-Semitic content online.

Bizarrely, Cllr Morton said he was unaware that the tweets from his personal account were visible to the public and said they may have been a “mistake”, saying: “Naively, I had thought that tweets on this site would remain private as there is no political attribution to the account… I thought that I had kept these opinions to myself. However I can see that these re-tweets may have been a mistake and would certainly be against Labour policy. I can’t argue against that and I will remove them.”

In his resignation letter, Cllr Morton said: “Over time I have come to the conclusion that local Labour Group policies do not reflect the views of my constituents. I have felt increasingly uncomfortable that we are ‘doing things to residents, not with them’.” Read the full story here.

Mayor Hussain Akhtar, Blackburn

Cllr Hussain Akhtar, the former mayor of Blackburn with Darwen, is expected to attend a pre-trial hearing next month, with three days already set aside in November for a full trial at Burnley Magistrates Court.

Akhtar, 75, has pleaded not guilty to flytipping, with it being alleged that in November 2021 he dumped waste including wood, metal, glass, electrical items, and general building materials and waste at Wilton Park, Blackburn. He has since been suspended by the Labour Party. Read the full story here.

Paul Flowers

Former Bradford Labour Councillor Paul Flowers, who was also a once a chairman of the Co-operative Bank, has been charged with fraud.

Flowers, who represented the Labour Party for Bradford Council from 2001 to 2011, stands accused of abusing his authority to commit an act of fraud, and will attend Manchester magistrates on August 30th. This month he failed to attend court, with a judge saying that if he does not appear at the next hearing he will be arrested. Read the full story here.

Cllr David Graham, Fife, Scotland

Anas Sarwar’s ‘Scottish branch’ of the Labour Party last month suspended Councillor David Graham, a senior figure on Fife Council who up until today held a prominent position on the cabinet.

Graham, 41, is a Labour councillor for Buckhaven, Methil and Wemyss villages, Fife’s representative at Cosla, and is also a non-executive director on the board of NHS Fife.

The Labour councillor is due to appear in Kirkcaldy Sheriff Court “at a later date”, police have confirmed.

A Police Scotland spokesperson said: “A 41-year-old man has been arrested and charged in relation to grooming offences following an investigation in Fife. Read the full story here.

MP Nick Brown

Cllr Mohammad Sarwar, Kirklees