James O’Brien has today apologised on LBC after he yesterday uncritically read out a claim that Jewish children attending “Shabbat school” in the UK were taught that “one Jewish life is worth thousands of Arab lives, and that Arabs are cockroaches to be crushed.” The now-deleted clip has received global coverage…
He has now said on air:
“At this time yesterday on the show, I read out a message from a listener called Chris who said that his wife had been brought up in the Jewish faith and had attended what he described as a Shabbat school. He went on to make further claims about what he said she had been taught in that school. As with all the texts and messages that I read out on the program, I did so in good faith. But the message has understandably upset a lot of people and I regret taking those unsubstantiated claims at face value and I’m genuinely sorry for that. Um, and it is very important that I get that out there and and thank you for your um, attention.”
LBC has not released its own statement. A Campaign Against Antisemitism spokesman said the original comments were “amplified by a host who likely wouldn’t think twice about cutting off the caller were he promoting such grotesque falsehoods about another minority.” Not pretty…
Tom Baldwin, author of Starmer’s hagiography, spoke to Times Radio:
Tom Baldwin: “I think he’d like to do something. He’s very dutiful and driven by service. That’s why he came into politics. I think that’s characterised his time as prime minister. He hasn’t always sought popularity or been good at being popular. But I think he has some of the necessary qualities that we actually do want in a prime minister. That resilience, that relentlessness, that ability to carry the weight and the job really does weigh very heavily on people and he carries that weight very, very well.”
Jo Coburn: “NATO Secretary-General?”
Tom Baldwin: “I think that’s something that he would be interested in. I think it probably requires Andy Burnham’s government to support him in that and these are some of the questions which Andy Burnham has to resolve quite quickly.”