Member of Labour’s National Executive Committee Mish Rahman said at a “Stand Up to Racism” fringe event in Liverpool that Suella Braverman was on a “personal driven mission to be the most racist brown person” in the country and that she is the “most far-right home secretary” ever. Rahman supports Corbyn’s membership of Labour and argued that Diane Abbott only wanted “a fair hearing” when she claimed that the party investigation into her was racist. Rahman gets to vote on the strategic direction of the party…
The Corbynite love-in also included Bell Ribeiro-Addy who said that Sunak’s “entire election campaign is going to be based on racism” and Richard Burgon, who added that the Tories are “hurtling into far-right territory”. A party transformed…
Despite Labour’s NEC away day happening digitally via Zoom, 13 hard-left members performed a virtual “walk-out” of their first meeting this morning in protest, resulting in Margaret Beckett being elected unopposed as the new chair of the committee.
Laura Pidcock claims
“The left grouping were just forced to walk out of NEC meeting. The disrespect for the left is something we will not put up with. The leadership undermine governance of the NEC, censor debate & ignore our processes by doubling down on the removal of the whip from Jeremy Corbyn”
The walk-out was over an internal row between Starmer and the left of the NEC as they were told the Corbynite loyalist candidate Ian Murray of the Fire Brigades’ Union would be blocked from becoming chair. Only slightly more farcical scenes than last year’s “away day”, which took place a whole three miles away from Islington in South London…
*Image an artist’s impression.
The fallout from Labour’s decision to re-admit Chris Williamson to the party continues this morning – countless Labour MPs have come out overnight to express their incredulity at the decision. Actions speak louder than words, many of them like Louise Haigh still went out to campaign for Lisa Forbes in Peterborough and then welcome her to Parliament even after her “Zionist slave masters” rants were revealed. Corbyn’s Labour has been here so many times before, MPs’ Williamson protestations are nothing more than hot air without serious action this time…
Williamson’s suspension was lifted after a three-person NEC panel overruled advice from party officials yesterday. One of the three was Huda Elmi – predictably she’s already been uncovered ranting about Corbyn and Palestine by the indefatigable Iggy Ostanin. She’s close to tears as she calls Israel a settler-colonialist state and accuses institutions like the IMF and the World Bank – “who literally have money stained with blood” – of trying to bring down Jeremy Corbyn and not respecting “Jeremy’s mandate”. Labour have serious questions to answer over how they thought she was remotely an appropriate person to be sitting on a disciplinary panel judging cases like Williamson’s…
Last night’s NEC election results focused on the shocking election of Peter Willsman, a man dropped from the Momentum slate, disowned by media savvy Corbynistas like Owen Jones, Ash Sarkar, and Matt Zarb-Cousin after his rant about the anti-Semitism crisis being faked by Jewish Trump supporters. Little attention has been given to the person who topped the poll, Yasmine Dar.
On this video from last year Dar is celebrating the Iranian Islamic Revolution, a regular annual event for her which Guido reported on last year. The Iranian regime is built on a foundation of the corpses of enemies and has no greater enemy than Israel, a nation that they have many times promised to “wipe from the face of the earth”. Iran competes with North Korea among the dregs of states which systematically violate human rights. Amnesty International reports document the harsh penalties for “un-Islamic behaviour”, most famously the death penalty for same-sex relationships. This is the regime she celebrates, her “happy time” with holocaust deniers, anti-semites and conspiracy theorists.
Dar won seat on the NEC, the governing body of the Labour Party, after topping the poll with 88,176 votes, an astounding margin of victory for someone without a significant national profile. The Manchester Labour councillor attached herself to Andy Burnham’s campaign for leader when he was a favourite to win the leadership, she swiftly switched to Corbyn once she saw the way the wind was blowing. Two weeks ago Facebook announced it had taken down coordinated campaigns originating in Iran. Some 254 Facebook pages and 116 Instagram accounts with more than a million followers across the two services. Facebook said the network of propaganda sites was linked to Press TV, the station which for years employed Jeremy Corbyn as a front man. According to analysis “This influence operation linked to Iran aims to promote political narratives in line with Iranian interests, including anti-Saudi, anti-Israeli, and pro-Palestinian themes.” No evidence has been uncovered to suggest that Dar was a beneficiary of Iran’s extensive social media efforts.
Is her margin of victory shocking? Yes. Is it so surprising in the context of a party leader, Jeremy Corbyn, who was for years in the pay of the Iranian state…
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.”
He still hasn’t won an election, but Izzard replaces Shawcroft on the NEC and finally makes it to an official Labour Party position…
