Luke Akehurst

Luke Akehurst (born 1972) is a British Labour party official and former councillor. Since 2022, he has been a member of the National Executive Committee of the Labour Party, having also previously been on the NEC from 2010 until 2012. He is the Labour Party candidate for North Durham in the 2024 United Kingdom general election.

Education and early career

Luke Akehurst was educated at Kent College, Canterbury, a private school. He studied politics at the University of Bristol, graduating with BSC (Hons) in 1993.

In 1996, Akehurst was a researcher at the BBC Political Research Unit. In 2000, he became a freelance press officer. From 2000 to 2011, he worked at the Weber Shandwick marketing communications firm.

Involvement in politics

Early activity (1993–2005)

Luke Akehurst joined the Labour Party at the age of 16. In 1993, Akehurst ran for the in the Avon County Council election in the Cabot ward and came second. From 1995 to 1996, Akehurst was National Secretary of Labour Students. In 1995, Akehurst came seventh in the Bristol City Council election in the Stoke Bishop ward. He was campaigns officer for Labour MEP Anita Pollack in 1996, and an organiser for the Holborn & St Pancras Labour Party from 1996 to 1998. From 1998 to 2000, he was a political assistant for the Labour Group in Hackney London Borough Council.

At the 2001 general election Akehurst ran as the Labour candidate in Aldershot, coming third place behind incumbent Conservative MP Gerald Howarth and the Liberal Democrat Adrian Collett, in what has traditionally been a safe seat for the Conservatives.

In the 2002 Hackney borough council election, Akehurst was successfully elected to the council, representing Chatham ward. He was reelected to the council in 2006 and again in 2010, before standing down at the 2014 Hackney Council election.

At the 2005 general election, he ran in Castle Point. In the run up to the election, Akehurst criticised an anti-immigration advert that sitting Tory MP Bob Spink had published as "appalling comments that whip up racial tension" and "reminiscent of the worse utterances of Enoch Powell." Akehurst came second to Spink.

Activism and opposition to the left (2006–2020)

In 2006, Akehurst became Secretary of Labour First, which represents moderates and "the old Labour Right". Under his leadership, the organisation has been committed to "Clause One socialism" of prioritising getting Labour candidates elected to parliament above policy, as well as advocating for a party "safe from the organised hard left".

In 2010, Akehurst was elected to the National Executive Committee (NEC) of the Labour Party.

Since August 2011, Akehurst has been employed as director of the pro-Israel group We Believe in Israel. Akehurst has spoken positively of Zionism, describing it in 2023 as "a beautiful ideology of anti-racism". Following his selection as Labour's parliamentary candidate for North Durham in 2024, he has said he was "handing in his notice" and will no longer be a member of the group. He has described Israel's actions in the 2023–2024 Gaza war as proportionate. Momentum said Akehurst's views on Israel's actions were "a slap in the face to voters across the country already outraged by Labour's failings on Gaza".

In 2012, Akehurst failed to be re-elected to the NEC.

During the 2015 Labour leadership election, Labour First urged Progress to join in supporting "ABC" (Anyone But Corbyn). Akehurst supported Yvette Cooper's campaign.

In 2016, Akehurst attempted to run for a position on the NEC within the Constituency Labour Party (CLP) section, under the Corbyn-sceptic joint slate of candidates between Labour First and Progress, but the slate failed to achive any candidates, all being beaten by the Momentum backed CLPD slate.

Akehurst spoke out against Jeremy Corbyn's leadership of the party numerous times. In a 2019 speech at a Jewish Labour Movement rally, Akehurst said he had nearly left the party over anti-Semitism, and hoped that Corbyn could be removed as leader. On social media, he described the United Nations as antisemitic and said that Jews were "politically black". He has been criticised for what The Guardian described as "his efforts to wrest control of Labour's national executive committee, conference agenda and constituency Labour parties from the Corbynite left". Akehurst has been referred to as subsequent Labour leader Keir Starmer's "leading cheerleader on the NEC" by Ronan Burtenshaw, editor of Tribune. Akehurst said of Starmer's attitude: "Voters like it when Labour leaders put the hard left back in their box".

In 2018, Akehurst attempted to run for a position the NEC within the CLP section, again under the Labour First–Progress slate. Akehurst achieved 49 CLP nominations, but the slate failed to achieve any candidates, beaten by the pro-Corbyn joint Momentum–CLPD–CLGA slate.

Return to National Executive Committee (2020–present)

As secretary of Labour First, he was involved in 2020 talks with Progress, which established the pro-Starmer umbrella group Labour to Win.

In 2020, Akehurst was reelected in the first round to the Labour Party's NEC under the Labour to Win slate of nominees. His own Oxford East CLP did not nominate him, but he received more votes than any other candidate. In 2022, he was reelected again and once more topped the polls.

In the 2021 Oxford City Council elections, Akehurst ran for the St. Mary's ward, and came in third place.

In May 2024, it was announced that Akehurst is to stand in the 2024 general election as the Labour Party candidate for North Durham. The nomination was criticised by left-wingers and pro-Palestine activists due to Akehurst's previous accusations against Palestinian civilians in the Gaza war of being paid crisis actors, and of the United Nations of being antisemitic. This led to a crowdfunding campaign opposing his nomination. Byline Times editor Adam Bienkov noted that Akehurst had recently deleted hundreds of tweets around the time his nomination was announced.

In June 2024, Labour councillor and Momentum activist Martin Abrams, who is Jewish, submitted a complaint of antisemitism against Akehurst to the party. In a speech in 2020, Akehurst had said that Marxist Jews "have abandoned very much of their Jewish identity, they don't go to shul [synagogue] at all. You know, it's become a purely cultural thing around the occasional bowl of chicken soup or whatever." Abrams said "I believe Luke Akehurst's comments are deeply antisemitic by trying to define anti-Zionist Jews out of Judaism. The Good Jew, Bad Jew trope."

Personal life

Akehurst is married to Oxford councillor Linda Smith.

References