Following last night’s Commons bust-up between Margaret Hodge and Jeremy Corbyn, in which she called him “an anti-Semite and a racist” and said “You have proved you don’t want people like me in the party”, Labour have announced they will be taking action… against Hodge. They say her behaviour was “clearly unacceptable”. Disciplining a Jewish MP for calling out anti-Semitism… great look.
“Anti-Semitism is racism” – Theresa May has added fuel to Labour’s anti-Semitism row, asking why they haven’t adopted an internationally-recognised definition of the term
Find out more about #PMQs here: https://t.co/ifQmUa7rQS pic.twitter.com/qeRCvi40Ds
— Sky News (@SkyNews) July 18, 2018
Get the feeling this would be a much bigger story without the Tory Brexit mess…
At last night’s PLP meeting, Labour MPs passed a motion calling on the party to adopt the full International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance definition of anti-Semitism. Before the vote, Chris Williamson raised a point of order attempting to stop two Jewish Labour MPs from moving their motion, to the fury of his colleagues. Peak Chris Williamson.
Meanwhile away from the meeting, 68 rabbis took the unprecedented step of signing a letter calling on Labour to adopt the full IHRA definition. In an extraordinary intervention from a broad spectrum across the Jewish community, they wrote:
“antisemitism within sections of the Labour party has become so severe and widespread that we must speak out with one Jewish voice. The Labour party’s leadership has chosen to ignore those who understand antisemitism the best, the Jewish community. By claiming to know what’s good for our community, the Labour party’s leadership have chosen to act in the most insulting and arrogant way.”
Still Labour moderates do nothing about this other than send a few tweets. Once again the Tory shambles letting Labour get away with this…
The shadow equalities minister Dawn Butler tells “all the Jewish people attacking me” that “a bit of support from you would be nice”:
I feel quite sad that I’m being attacked and trolled by calling out Racism. All the Jewish people attacking me please think about what you’re doing. All racism is bad. I have called out antisemitism. A bit of suppprt from you would be nice. Otherwise we will never make progress
— (((Dawn Butler MP))) (@DawnButlerBrent) June 22, 2018
Oh dear…
Momentum supremo Jon Lansman will tonight defend Jeremy Corbyn over the Labour Party’s anti-semitism scandal at an event in Tel-Aviv. Lansman will speak at the Tel-Aviv office of the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation, an organisation connected with Germany’s far-left party Die Linke. The promo reads:
“In Israel, the media often portrays Corbyn as a controversial figure. Israeli establishment politicians – including from the local Israeli Labour Party – launched a barrage of smears and accusations against him, assisted by uncritical journalists in the media. Both his positions on Israel and Palestine, as well as the question of antisemitism within his Party, featured prominently in the attempts to blacken his image.”
They seem to have forgotten Corbyn’s position that anti-Semitism is not a smear…
The communist Morning Star newspaper has removed from its website an article which blamed mainstream Jewish groups for rising anti-Semitism. The article by John Elder, headlined “Rising anti-Semitism cannot be tackled without addressing Israel’s crimes”, argued:
“‘Mainstream’ Jewish organisations protesting about growing anti-Semitism must see that, by failing to condemn Israeli brutality against Palestinians, they will be regarded by some as being indirectly complicit in that country’s actions.”
It has now disappeared from the Morning Star website:
The Morning Star has now published another piece condemning the article:
Its rationale, that Jews everywhere are responsible for the actions of the Israeli government, is by reverse exactly the argument put forward by the Israeli government and right-wing zionists. But that cannot be acceptable in a daily paper of the left, which has anti-imperialism at its heart and should be challenging all forms of racism, including anti-semitism.
We write as long time supporters of the Morning Star. There is an expectation that features can be as challenging as is necessary. But the blinkered and reactionary nature of the Elder article has to become a line in the sand. Jews and all citizens should be encouraged to challenge actual and existing anti-semitism. Our paper should be at the forefront of that movement.
Grim stuff.
Labour’s newly selected parliamentary candidate in the marginal seat of North Swindon has been forced to distance herself from a Twitter account which posted about the Rothschilds, Zion “scum” and “fake Jews”. In April, Kate Linnegar was selected to fight the next election in a seat that is seen as a must-win if Labour is to have any chance of forming a government. Linnegar, a Corbynista who has been involved in local left-wing activism for years, ran the Swindon People’s Assembly. Her face is the profile picture for the group’s Twitter account. Though she denies any involvement with the following tweets…
The account bearing Linnegar’s face has ranted about the Rothschilds:
It posted about “fake Jews”:
It described pop star Zayn Malik as “another Zion slave”:
Some other pleasantries:
A South West Labour party spokesperson said: “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.” Seems a very serious case of identity fraud, hope they catch the culprit…
The Shadow Farming and Rural Affairs minister has apologised after saying wearing fur is “the same as wearing a swastika”. David Drew said in the Commons:
“I do not understand not only why we cannot lean on the retail trade, but why people wear fur. To me it is the same as wearing a swastika.”
He later said sorry:
“I am sorry for drawing this comparison. I am passionate about animal welfare but this comparison was inappropriate and I apologise.”
Well worthy of the Order of the OTT…
LBC’s Theo Usherwood has the transcript of Ken’s Labour Party disciplinary hearing. It is fair to say they did not exactly give him a tough grilling. Panel member Russell Cartwright instead blamed Guido and the media for the scandal in a series of pathetic softball questions. Seriously, the state of this…
“Naz Shah possibly didn’t see that [calling for Jews to leave the Middle East] was attempted humour, but it was picked up nearly two years later by Guido Fawkes. So what political current does Guido Fawkes normally represent, or is seen to represent?…
It was Iain Dale who was the interviewer on LBC, was it? And which political party has Iain Dale stood for as a candidate?
… A Telegraph editorial, the Telegraph is obviously a paper of the right and normally referred to as the Torygraph?
The Daily Politics show, which is hosted by Andrew Neil. And I would have thought there would have been – is there a consensus, do you think, in the Labour Party that everybody in the Labour Party thinks Andrew Neil is of the right?
Your interview on 30 April is with David Mellor, and obviously it’s common knowledge that he was a Conservative MP who was disgraced…
All select committees would have a government majority on them, regardless of who chairs it, so Tim Loughton was in the chair, the draft would have been under his name, and so – well, should we be surprised it made the conclusions it does about anti-Semitism in respect of the evidence it took from you? It’s another Conservative Party-dominated publication.”
Tell us again, Labour, how you’re taking anti-Semitism seriously…
Shadow Chancellor @johnmcdonnellMP says anti-Semitism in society is not something I want to live in or I will tolerate #bbcsp pic.twitter.com/IOs0SGo1J3
— BBC Daily Politics and Sunday Politics (@daily_politics) May 20, 2018
Asked about Guido’s scoop on Martha Osamor signing a letter defending anti-Semites, McDonnell condemns Labour’s new peer but says she should still take her place in the Lords. Remember when McDonnell used to talk about “a zero tolerance approach to anti-Semitism”?
Jeremy Corbyn’s new peer Martha Osamor is embroiled in an anti-Semitism storm after it emerged she mounted an extraordinary defence of some of Labour’s worst anti-Semites. On 15 June 2016, Osamor signed a letter protesting against the suspension of several Labour members who had made virulently anti-Semitic comments. The letter – which itself should be enough to warrant suspension – defended the notorious Tony Greenstein, who was kicked out of the party after Labour’s NCC found him guilty of “repeatedly using ‘zio’ as a term of derision, stating ‘Gay zionists make me want to puke’ and referring to others as ‘Zionist scum’”. Osamor personally backed Greenstein.
The Osamor letter also defended Jackie Walker, insisting her suspension was “applied and publicised in haste, without due consideration”, and welcoming her re-admission to the party (Walker was later suspended again for claiming that Jews financed the slave trade). Osamor thinks Jackie Walker should still be in the Labour Party.
Osamor’s letter remarkably backed Ken Livingstone’s claims that Hitler was a Zionist: “It appears allegations of anti-Semitism are being used to stifle the sharing of information on some of the uncomfortable events that took place during the Shoah”. Osamor specifically called for Momentum activist Marlene Ellis to have her suspension overturned. Ellis called for Ken to be reinstated and dismissed Naz Shah’s call for Jews to be transported out of the Middle East as “not so outrageous within the historical context and involvement of Zionists with Nazis”. And the letter defended David White, the Croydon CLP secretary who was suspended for saying Ken was “largely accurate” to say Hitler was a Zionist. It appears Osamor thinks Ken and his defenders have done nothing wrong.
Osamor’s letter said the suspensions for anti-Semitism “undermine serious discussion and thinking”. What “serious discussion and thinking” about Jews does Osamor want to have? She goes on to claim “Allegations are also being made to silence criticisms of Israel, hamper the work of Momentum activists, and undermine Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn”. This is a viewpoint Corbyn has himself condemned – so why is he putting Osamor in the Lords?
Her letter then compared the anti-Semitism scandal to the McCarthy era and the Salem witch trials. It states:
“We are uncomfortable with the parallel between the suspensions and what took place during the McCarthy era in the United States… Some members of the Party appear to have exploited a somewhat hysterical atmosphere which has been allowed to develop. This is reminiscent of the Salem Witch Trials in Massachusetts, rather than of calm, rational consideration… The current suspensions are perceived as a tool to intimidate activists on the Left which is inimical to the progress of the Labour Party.”
Just three weeks ago, Osamor shared another letter to the Guardian on her Facebook page which claimed Labour’s anti-semitism crisis was “weaponised” by the media to damage Corbyn and Labour ahead of the local elections. Again, this is a position Corbyn has condemned.
If a typical Labour member had said the things in Osamor’s letter, endorsing Tony Greenstein, Jackie Walker, Ken Livingstone, Marlene Ellis and David White, they would be suspended. Instead Corbyn has given Osamor a peerage. Labour have been approached for comment. Will they act in light of these new revelations?
UPDATE: Martha Osamor says in a statement:
“I am and always have been implacably opposed to antisemitism and have spent my life as an anti-racist campaigner. As Jeremy has said clearly, raising concerns about antisemitism is not a smear. I welcome Jennie Formby’s recent actions as Labour’s new General Secretary to ensure there is no place for antisemitism in the Labour Party.”
Labour are declining to defend Osamor and have made her put out a statement in her own name. Oh dear…
UPDATE II: Campaign Against Antisemitism condemn Corbyn and Osamor:
“Mr Corbyn has promised action, not just words, against antisemitism in the Labour Party. Today his actions speak louder than ever. By elevating Ms Osamor to the peerage, Mr Corbyn has sent an unmistakable signal to those in the Jewish community who still harboured some hope that he might change. Mr Corbyn is telling us not only that he sees her behaviour as unproblematic, but that he sees it as being worthy of the highest honour and a lifelong seat in the House of Lords. Yet again, Mr Corbyn has sent the Jewish community a two-fingered salute, and the Labour Party has looked on inertly.”
Baroness Chakrabarti says Ken Livingstone’s comments have brought “shame on the Labour party” and left it in “disrepute”. #bbcsp pic.twitter.com/isRXMLVkK4
— BBC Daily Politics and Sunday Politics (@daily_politics) May 13, 2018
And yet Corbyn still hasn’t kicked him out…
A total shambles at the Labour NEC working group meeting on anti-Semitism this afternoon. First, they uninvited Adam Langleben of the Jewish Labour Movement, the Barnet councillor who lost his seat last week and has since been critical of Corbyn. Labour rather unbelievably claimed his invitation was a “misunderstanding” and shouldn’t have been sent out in the first place. A second JLM colleague of Langleben was also uninvited.
The JLM understandably decided to attend the meeting anyway – you’d have thought the main Jewish group in the Labour Party should be present at the NEC meeting on anti-Semitism, after all. They were banned from entering and made to stand outside:
We’ve arrived to attend @UKLabour’s NEC working group on antisemitism as “The Working Group have agreed to invite you to attend their next meeting & contribute to their discussion on this issue”. We await to see if the Jewish affiliate of 99 years will be allowed in the room
— JewishLabourMovement (@JewishLabour) May 8, 2018
Having been asked to wait by the receptionist, we’ve now been waiting for 50 minutes whilst the Labour Party discuss combatting antisemitism without us. https://t.co/HthueipReZ
— JewishLabourMovement (@JewishLabour) May 8, 2018
To my great disappointment the Labour NEC Working Group on Antisemitism have been meeting for one hour now. We, @JewishLabour, have been waiting patiently for an hour. We will not be allowed in. They are discussing antisemitism without the only Jewish affiliate.
— Adam Langleben 🇪🇺 (@adamlangleben) May 8, 2018
Labour: a party with no room for Jews…
UPDATE: Labour source:
“Jennie Formby has written to Adam Langleben to clarify that the invitation was only extended to people with a role in Labour’s disciplinary process. Peter Mason has first-hand experience of our processes and his invitation was in that capacity, not as National Secretary of the Jewish Labour Movement. An invitation had already been sent to the Jewish Labour Movement for a separate meeting with Jennie Formby to discuss combatting antisemitism.”
John McDonnell admitted the anti-semitism scandal hurt Labour at the local elections. Speaking on Marr the Shadow Chancellor said:
“We’ll be meeting some Barnet councillors next week… anti-semitism certainly had its effect, there’s no doubt about it in Barnet itself… I’m hoping the measures we’re putting in place now – the Chakrabarti report implemented in full, Jennie Formby new general secretary – Jeremy Corbyn said to Jennie, your first priority is tackling this issue.”
That response won’t reassure concerned activists and councillors…
Meanwhile on Sky Party Chairman Ian Lavery also admitted anti-semitism cost the party:
“Antisemitism has no role, no place at all in the Labour Party, we will rout it out from top to bottom” says Labour Party Chairman @IanLaveryMP #Ridge pic.twitter.com/tamamtYZm8
— Ridge on Sunday (@RidgeOnSunday) 6 May 2018
More tough talk …
When Guido broke the original Labour anti-Semitism scandal back in 2016, and then the ensuing slew of revelations about dozens of Labour councillors, Corbyn’s supporters dismissed it as a “row launched by Guido Fawkes”:
Chris Williamson said our anti-Semitism coverage had “no credibility whatsoever” and called us a “squalid smear factory”. The Corbyn sympathising website Electronic Intifada accused Guido of “trawling through the Twitter backlog” of Labour councillors and claimed our stories were “manufactured” by the “Israel Lobby”. Their conspiratorial take was shared and promoted by prominent Corbyn outriders.
Another article by a pro-Corbyn journalist on the website Open Democracy claimed that our anti-Semitism stories were “baseless”, accused Guido of being “systematically dishonest about Labour Party antisemitism” and of “misrepresenting” those we reported on (even though Labour’s compliance unit eventually agreed with us and kicked them out).
Corbyn himself said anti-Semitism was a smear. He was filmed by Vice on the phone to Seumas Milne dismissing the anti-Semitism scandal as “utterly disgusting subliminal nastiness”.
Two years on, the Corbynista response to Guido’s anti-Semitism revelations has led to Labour being resoundingly rejected by Jewish communities at the ballot box.
In Barnet, which has a Jewish population of 15%, the highest of any council in the country, Labour were humiliated and the Tories secured the result of the night. Turnout in Golders Green was an incredible 70%.
In the Kensal ward in Salford, which has a Jewish population of 40%, the highest of any ward in the country, the Tories took it from Labour.
In the Pilkington Park ward in Bury, which has a Jewish population of around 25%, there was a huge swing from Labour to the Tories, who won by 700 votes.
During two years of campaigning journalism on this issue we broke story after story showing Labour had a serious anti-Semitism problem. Corbyn and his allies could have recognised the problem and dealt with it. Instead they accused us of smears. The Jewish Chronicle reports that it isn’t just Jews who were horrified by our anti-Semitism revelations, and that non-Jews joined in what they are calling a “mass protest vote” against Corbyn. The story cut through to the public – it is no coincidence that, following two years of Guido’s stories, anti-Semitism has become the Tories’ main attack line against Labour. Jewish Labour members and moderate Labour readers who are not normally sympathetic to Guido’s editorial line have privately thanked us for acting as a pro bono Labour Party compliance unit. The Corbynistas could have listened, instead their anti-Semitism scandal has come home to roost…
Ken Livingstone defends his assertion that Hitler supported Zionism and says that he has been smeared #Election2018 pic.twitter.com/5v8TnuYarf
— Sky News (@SkyNews) May 4, 2018
Ken mentioned Hitler just the six times in his interview on Sky this morning, repeatedly telling Adam Boulton that Zionists “collaborated” with Hitler. He insisted the criticism of him is a “smear” and says he thinks Labour’s new general secretary Jennie Fornby will let him back into the party: “I want to do everything I can to get Jeremy Corbyn in Downing Street”. As Adam put it, “Don’t you think it would just be better not to bring Hitler into it?”
Emily Thornberry attended the Mahmoud Abbas speech which made global headlines this week for its anti-Semitic content, Guido can reveal. Thornberry was representing Labour at the Palestinian National Council (PNC) meeting in Ramallah. The Shadow Foreign Secretary confirmed her attendance in a Facebook post published after Abbas’ speech. Her statement did not reference Abbas’ anti-Semitic comments…
Abbas delivered a rambling speech in which he claimed the Holocaust was not caused by anti-Semitism but by Jewish “social behaviour, [charging] interest, and financial matters.” In highly offensive comments, Abbas said:
“But why did this use to happen… They say, “It is because we are Jews”. I will bring you three Jews, with three books who say that enmity towards Jews was not because of their religious identity but because of their social function. This is a different issue. So the Jewish question that was widespread throughout Europe was not against their religion but against their social function which relates to usury [unscrupulous money-lending] and banking and such.”
Rather than reference the remarks or condemn Abbas in her initial statement, Thornberry instead said:
“While we of course want to see the resumption of meaningful peace talks, I said President Abbas had been quite right to argue that the Trump administration cannot act as a mediator for peace when they themselves are sowing the seeds of discord, and making a negotiated peace ever harder to achieve...”
Now Thornberry has put out another statement:
“It is deeply regrettable that, during a lengthy speech whose main and successful purpose was to urge the Palestinian National Council to remain committed to the Middle East peace process and the objective of a two-state solution, President Abbas made these anti-Semitic remarks about the history of the Jewish community in Europe which were not just grossly offensive, but utterly ignorant. His comments were out of keeping with the tone of the Council as a whole, and of my discussions with other delegates, and I hope President Abbas will immediately apologise for them, so that the message to come out of this important Council meeting can remain positive and progressive, and focused on re-establishing peaceful and constructive dialogue.”
Labour sources are concerned that the Shadow Foreign Secretary did not initially distance herself from the remarks or condemn them. It has been confirmed that she was in the room during the remarks, alongside 80 other international observers. It was a mad three hour speech so perhaps she just wasn’t listening. If Boris did this it would lead Sky News all day…
Len McCluskey’s now infamous New Statesman article dismissing anti-Semitism as a “smear” and threatening Labour MPs who spoke in the anti-Semitism debate with deselection was actually written by Corbyn aide Andrew Murray, Jon Craig reports. Murray is Len’s chief of staff at Unite but is also a “part-time consultant” in Corbyn’s office. Readers will remember the former Communist Party member’s other greatest hits include defending Stalin, the Soviet Union and North Korea, celebrating the Russian Revolution and repeatedly parroting Kremlin talking points. Craig says he has had it “confirmed by a top union source” that Murray was the author of McCluskey’s article. Corbyn publicly says that anti-Semitism stories are not a smear and praises the MPs who spoke out about abuse. Privately his aides are writing articles saying it is a smear and threatening them with deselection…
UPDATE: Unite dispute Jon Craig’s top union source and insist Len wrote it himself.
Another day, another anti-Semitic Labour candidate. Irfan Javed is Labour’s council candidate in Woodfield in Stevenage on Thursday. He has ranted on Facebook about “Jew propaganda” and commented: “I am just suspicious. This is what Jewish dominated western media usually does.” He has also compared Zionism to Nazism:
Suspended in 3, 2, 1…
UPDATE: He has been suspended.[…] Read the rest
Jeremy Corbyn told by veteran Jewish MP Margaret Hodge…
“You’re a f***ing anti-aemite and a racist”
