The former deputy leader of Newcastle City Council has been found guilty of Islamophobia and banned from the Labour Party for a year.
An investigation was launched into Joyce McCarty earlier this year over a scandal surrounding claims of a “Muslim plot” against ally Nick Forbes, after the long-serving council leader was dramatically deselected in February. In a text message seen by the Chronicle, Coun McCarty said she had heard that her friend’s ousting in his Arthur’s Hill ward had been orchestrated by councillors in the West End of the city in order to get more black, Asian, and minority ethnic (BAME) candidates selected.
Despite being suspended by her party in late March while the investigation was ongoing, she remained on local election ballot papers for Labour in May and was re-elected in Wingrove with an overwhelming majority. But she will now sit as an independent, after the Labour Party confirmed she had been “found guilty through investigation of Islamophobia” and is suspended for 12 months after a disciplinary hearing. However, she will not be expelled from the party.
