Former Nazi is now a Labour councillor in Milton Keynes

The Milton Keynes Citizen reports that Cllr Margaret Burke, who was elected as a Labour councillor in Milton Keynes last week, used to be a Nazi.

It says:

She and her then husband Terry Flynn ran the Milton Keynes November 9th Society during the early 1980s.

They both wore Nazi-style uniforms and recruited gangs of local youths to hand out racist leaflets and daub buildings with swastikas.

Ironically, one of their frequent targets was the Labour Hall in New Bradwell.

When the marriage broke up Margaret switched her passion to animals and joined the controversial Animal Liberation Front, but her exploits landed her in Holloway prison after she vandalised a butcher’s shop.

Labour Group leader Cllr Kevin Wilson said:

“We were aware of Margaret’s past and we questioned her at length. We had no doubt at all that her misdemeanours of 20 or 30 years ago were serious matters but I do not believe that somebody should be punished or penalised for what they did such a long time ago."

But shouldn't the voters of Stantonbury Ward have been told the full story before the election? It is true that former IRA member Cllr Maria Gatland, a Conservative councillor in Croydon, kept her past secret. But she was under a death sentence after having written a book about the IRA which was highly damaging for them (when she was still called Maria McGuire.) So that is rather different matter.

Cllr Burke says she wants to work for the community as a way of "making up" for what she did. Will she be claiming her councillor's allowance?