Lisa Forbes eyes a comeback

To Peterborough, ahead of the local Labour party’s annual meeting there tonight. One of the topics of conversation will likely be who to select as Peterborough’s candidate for the next general election. After all, the seat is a marginal one, with a majority of just 2,580. Four different MPs have served as the borough’s representative in parliament over the past five years, including the incumbent Tory Paul Bristow. And it could be the woman who Bristow defeated at the last election – Lisa Forbes – who again stands at the next election, according to several Labour sources in Peterborough who claim that the ex-MP has her eye on a surprise comeback there.

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Forbes, of course, only managed six months in parliament after winning a by-election in June 2019 and then losing it in the subsequent general election in December that same year. Her main distinction was sparking demands for her to lose the Labour whip before she had even taken her seat in Westminster from both the anti-racism group Hope not Hate and the Labour party’s Jewish affiliate, the Jewish Labour Movement (JLM). It came after revelations Forbes had liked a Facebook post saying Theresa May had a ‘Zionist Slave Master’s agenda’; on another occasion, she said she had ‘enjoyed’ a Facebook thread which said Islamic extremists were created by Mossad and the CIA. For her part, Forbes insisted that she found antisemitism ‘abhorrent’ and had engaged with the Facebook posts in error.

Forbes did not respond to a request for comment when asked by Mr S about reports that she would be put her hat in the ring again. Over to you then Peterborough Labour…