Christine Linda Shawcroft (born April 1955) is a British
Labour Party activist and former politician.
Shawcroft is a director of Momentum and was elected as the chair of the Labour Party's Disputes Sub-Committee in January 2018. In March 2018, she resigned from her post after she disputed the suspension of a Labour candidate who was accused of
Holocaust denial
Holocaust denial is an antisemitic conspiracy theory that falsely asserts that the Nazi genocide of Jews, known as the Holocaust, is a myth, fabrication, or exaggeration. Holocaust deniers make one or more of the following false statements: ...
. She later resigned her position on Labour's
National Executive Committee National Executive Committee is the name of a leadership body in several organizations, mostly political parties:
* National Executive Committee of the African National Congress, in South Africa
* Australian Labor Party National Executive
* Nationa ...
.
Early career
Shawcroft has worked for many years as a teacher in the
East End of London.
She was elected as a Labour Party member of
Tower Hamlets London Borough Council
Tower Hamlets London Borough Council is the local authority for the London Borough of Tower Hamlets in Greater London, England. The council is unusual in that its executive function is controlled by a directly elected mayor of Tower Hamlets, cur ...
in a 1985 by-election, representing
Blackwall,
and served for two years as leader of the Labour group on the council, while it was in opposition.
She served on the executive of the
London Labour Party
London Labour is the devolved, regional part of the Labour Party in Greater London. It is the largest political party in London, currently holding a majority of the executive mayoralties, a majority of local councils, council seats and parli ...
.
From the mid-1990s, prospective Labour council candidates had to be vetted by a selection panel, and Shawcroft was refused permission to defend her council seat in 1998,
Liz Davies
Liz Davies (born 1963) is a British barrister, author and political activist who advocates socialist feminism.Liz Davie"In praise of feminism" ''Morning Star'', 22 March 2013 She is the daughter of the Oxford academic and historian of Tudor Englan ...
claiming that this was due to Shawcroft's left-wing views. She was also rejected as a potential candidate for the
London Assembly.
Member of the NEC
In 1998, Shawcroft stood for the party's
National Executive Committee National Executive Committee is the name of a leadership body in several organizations, mostly political parties:
* National Executive Committee of the African National Congress, in South Africa
* Australian Labor Party National Executive
* Nationa ...
(NEC) as part of the
Grassroots Alliance slate. The slate took four out of six seats in the constituency section, but Shawcroft was not elected. The following year, she took second place in the vote and finally gained a place on the NEC.
She retained her seat at each subsequent election.
At the
2001 United Kingdom general election, Shawcroft stood in
Meriden, taking second place with 39.2% of the vote.
Shawcroft was a leading member of the
Labour Representation Committee, a left-wing group within the Labour Party, but resigned in 2012 in protest of it taking control of the ''
Labour Briefing
''Labour Briefing'' is a monthly political magazine produced by members of the British Labour Party.
History and profile
The magazine began in 1980 as ''London Labour Briefing''. The founders were the members of the Chartist Minority Tendency, ...
'' journal. With other opponents of this takeover, she became a director of a new ''Labour Briefing'' publication.
In 2015, Shawcroft was briefly suspended from the Labour Party after she gave support to
Lutfur Rahman, the former
Mayor of Tower Hamlets
The mayor of Tower Hamlets is the directly elected mayor of Tower Hamlets London Borough Council in east London, England. The first election for this position occurred on 21 October 2010, taking on the executive function of the borough counci ...
.
A supporter of
Jeremy Corbyn
Jeremy Bernard Corbyn (; born 26 May 1949) is a British politician who served as Leader of the Opposition and Leader of the Labour Party from 2015 to 2020. On the political left of the Labour Party, Corbyn describes himself as a socialist ...
, and also of
Jon Lansman
Jonathan Lansman (born 9 July 1957) is a British political activist. He is best known for having worked on Jeremy Corbyn's successful 2015 campaign for the leadership of the Labour Party and subsequently founded the pro-Corbyn organisation Mo ...
, Shawcroft became a director of
Momentum. In January 2018, she was elected as chair of the Labour Party's Disputes Sub-Committee, defeating
Ann Black
Ann Black is a British political activist who serves as a member of the National Executive Committee (NEC) of the Labour Party. She served from 2000 to 2018 and was re-elected in November 2020. She was chair of the NEC from 2009 to 2010, and ha ...
.
During the process to choose the next
general secretary of the Labour Party
The General Secretary of the Labour Party is the most senior employee of the British Labour Party, and acts as the non-voting secretary to the National Executive Committee. When there is a vacancy the National Executive Committee selects a provi ...
in March 2018, following the resignation of
Iain McNicol
Iain Mackenzie McNicol, Baron McNicol of West Kilbride (born 17 August 1969) is a British politician, trade unionist and life peer who served as General Secretary of the Labour Party from 2011 to 2018. He was National Political Officer of the ...
, Shawcroft was vocal in her support for Jon Lansman of Momentum over
Jennie Formby
Jennifer "Jennie" Formby (' Sandle; born 12 April 1960) is a British trade unionist and political figure who served as General Secretary of the Labour Party from 2018 to 2020. She was previously political director and south-east England regiona ...
of the
Unite
Unite may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Music Albums
* ''Unite'' (A Friend in London album), 2013 album by Danish band A Friend in London
* ''Unite'' (Kool & the Gang album), 1993
* ''Unite'' (The O.C. Supertones album), 2005
Songs ...
union, a contest which was proving divisive among supporters of Jeremy Corbyn. She commented on
Facebook
Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin Mosk ...
: "Nothing would induce me to support a candidate from a major trade union, they stick it to the rank and file members time after time after time. It’s also time to support disaffiliation of the unions from the Labour Party. The party belongs to us, the members". The comments, which were soon deleted, caused consternation among trade unionists and Momentum distanced itself from Shawcroft's statement.
In February 2019, she decided not to re-stand for the NEC in the election to be held that summer.
At the end of March 2018, after a leak to ''
The Times
''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper '' The Sunday Times'' (f ...
'', she resigned from the Disputes Sub-Committee after casting doubt on the case for a suspension, offering "partisan disputes in local parties" as an explanation for the dispute. Alan Bull, intended to be a May 2018 council candidate in Peterborough, had in 2015 shared a (faked) article in a closed Facebook group headlined: "International Red Cross Report Confirms the Holocaust of Six Million Jews is a Hoax" accompanied by a photograph of the gates at
Auschwitz, to "invite discussion and debate". "I'm not an anti-Semite, I am not a holocaust denier - I support equal rights for Palestinian people," Bull later said. Shawcroft said she was not fully aware of the facts at the time of sending the email and, if she had been, would have reacted differently. A few days later, after seeing the "abhorrent image", she wrote on Facebook that she had told the member that he should be sent for training about antisemitism, and that the issue within the Labour Party was being used to attack Jeremy Corbyn. Bull later removed the post.
On 31 March 2018, Shawcroft issued a further statement in which she indicated that, while "it has been a privilege to serve on the Labour party
National Executive Committee National Executive Committee is the name of a leadership body in several organizations, mostly political parties:
* National Executive Committee of the African National Congress, in South Africa
* Australian Labor Party National Executive
* Nationa ...
for the last 19 years", she was resigning from the body "with immediate effect". She was replaced on the NEC by
Eddie Izzard
Edward John Izzard (; born 7 February 1962) is a British stand-up comedian, actor and activist. Her comedic style takes the form of what appears to the audience as rambling whimsical monologues and self-referential pantomime.
Izzard's stand- ...
.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Shawcroft, Christine
1955 births
Living people
Labour Party (UK) councillors
Councillors in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets
Labour Party (UK) parliamentary candidates
Labour Party (UK) officials
Women councillors in England