NORTH Swindon’s Labour MP hopeful has spoken out, after finding herself at the middle of an anti-Semitism row.

Kate Linnegar was linked by Westminster news blog Guido Fawkes to a series of anti-Zionist tweets posted on the Swindon People’s Assembly social media feed. Small business-owner Ms Linnegar, who has been secretary of the group, was selected as Labour’s prospective parliamentary candidate in April.

The tweets target Zionists, those who support the setting-up of a Jewish homeland in Israel. Dating back to 2016, the posts talk of “another Zion slave” and describe Zionists as “fake Jews”.

Ms Linnegar and the Labour Party said she had no part in posting the tweets, with the MP hopeful distancing herself from the Swindon People Assembly’s Twitter feed.

She told the Swindon Advertiser: “The Twitter account was set up when we started Swindon People’s Assembly some years ago. The person running it was so inactive at tweeting that we forgot it even existed. We haven’t seen this person at Swindon People’s Assembly for a long time.

“When we were alerted to what had been tweeted, we asked the person to delete it as the views were not those of Swindon People’s Assembly, me or the Labour Party. This person is not a Labour Party member.”

While she condemned the posts, Ms Linnegar refused to distance herself from the Swindon People’s Assembly group. She said of the organisation, which hosts the annual pro-refugee march through Swindon town centre: “It does fantastic work fighting the austerity cuts that affect us all. I am a proud member of Swindon People’s Assembly.”

A spokesman for the South West Labour Party told Guido Fawkes: “Kate Linnegar has no involvement with these tweets or the running of this Twitter account. Her image has been used in the profile picture without her consent.”

The controversy is the latest anti-Semitism row to hit the Labour Party. Previous incidents include comments made by former London Mayor Ken Livingstone, who suggested on BBC Radio London that Hitler was a Zionist “before he went mad and ended up killing six million Jews”.

A review by former human rights charity boss Shami Chakrabarti into anti-Semitism and other racism allegations in 2016 made 20 recommendations.

Responding to a letter from Jewish community leaders earlier this Spring, Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn acknowledged the party had been too slow to respond to anti-Semitism allegations and said the “full implementation” of the Chakrabarti report’s recommendations was overdue.