Bristol anti-gun woman misled Labour conference

http://www.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/int/news/-/news/uk-england-bristol-17154829

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An anti-gun and knife-crime campaigner misled a national conference when she said her family members had been murdered.

Narraser Gordon, 24, claimed at the Labour Party's conference in September that eight of her family members had been killed in Bristol.

After a standing ovation from politicians, local newspapers picked up on the Labour youth officer's speech.

BBC Inside Out has found most of the people she said were dead are alive.

Ms Gordon told the conference: "I'm here to talk about why the young people are dying before they can even see the age of 21.

"This is an issue causing a problem in all the cities in the UK, including... my own area of Bristol, with eight of my family members being murdered here."

'Do regret this'

The BBC was making a documentary about the work of Ms Gordon, who is regularly invited into schools to help young people with anti-violence projects.

She gave the names of the people she claimed had been murdered, but a search of the register of deaths found the majority of the people she listed were not there.

Ms Gordon was also found to be conversing on Facebook with some of the people she said had been killed.

When questioned by the BBC, Ms Gordon admitted that the majority of the people on the list had not been murdered.

But she then contradicted this in an email where she said: "I have lost three family members and five very close friends who I consider as family.

"I realise I may have used words which could be seen as misleading and I do regret this."

Her speech has now been removed from the website of the Bristol West Labour Party, who declined to comment.

Ms Gordon is now working on a campaign calling for the government to give more money to community activists who tackle gun and knife crime.

<strong><em>Inside Out is broadcast on BBC One in the West region at 19:30 GMT on Monday.</em></strong>