Last night two former Shadow Ministers – Bell Ribeiro-Addy and Diane Abbott – were caught attending a Zoom Conference in which antisemitism within the party was denied without challenge from her, Ken Livingstone was defended and former Labour Councillor Jo Bird claimed some party members had died as a result of disciplinary cases. Also in attendance was Jackie Walker, whom even Corbyn found too antisemitic to remain as a Labour member…
The chat, organised by the Labour Representation Committee was watched and photographed by journalist Lee Harpin, who claims at one stage Jo Bird alleged, “BAME disciplinary complaints were ‘deprioritised’ while antisemitism complaints were ‘prioritised’.” Another attendee visible is Tony Greenstein, who was also expelled from Labour for ‘Antisemitic bullying’ and called Israel “Hitler’s bastard offspring“. While Diane’s participation is unsurprising at this stage, is Sir Keir happy for one of his new intake to be sharing a virtual platform with such cranks, in contravention of the pledge to the Board of Deputies he signed?
UPDATE: A Labour spokesman tells The Jewish Chronicle, “This is being made clear to the Labour MPs who attended the call in the strongest possible terms and they are being reminded of their responsibilities and obligations.” That’ll tell ’em…
The ‘Labour Representation Committee’, Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell’s long-term faction of which he now serves as President, this week published an article attacking the Jewish Labour Movement entitled “JLM Stabs Labour in the Back.” A line echoing Goebbels…
The article seems to state that the concerns of Jewish people about racism are of no importance compared to austerity, denies the harassment of Luciana Berger, and claims that the Jewish members of Jewish Labour Movement are part of a conspiracy to bring the Labour Party into disrepute.
Written by the Political Secretary of the group, Mick Brooks, the article goes on to claim that the Jewish Labour Movement is simply a front for Israeli intelligence agency Mossad. The article rounds off by calling for the official representative body of Jews in Labour to be banned and disaffiliated from the Labour Party…
John McDonnell remains active as the President of the group, having written for it less than a week ago. He is listed as one of just nine people involved in running it on their website. We have contacted John McDonnell’s office for comment, at the time of going to pixel no response has been forthcoming. This is being done in McDonnell’s name…
UPDATE 10 April: A spokesman for McDonnell told The Times: “John wants the JLM to continue to play a full role in the Labour Party. John has no day-to-day involvement in the operation of the LRC and is not responsible for its website or for posts on social media by its supporters.” He remains el Presidente of the Labour Representation Committee.
