UK party suspends Punjab-origin candidate
LONDON: Geeta Sidhu-Robb, who was running to be the Liberal Democrats candidate for the forthcoming election for the next London mayor, has been suspended and dropped from the party list after her anti-semitic remarks made during the 1997 general election emerged over the weekend.
Sidhu-Robb, a lawyer and businesswoman, was the Conservative candidate in Blackburn, Lancashire. Her opponent was senior Labour leader Jack Straw, who held various cabinet positions in the Tony Blair and Gordon Brown governments, including as foreign secretary.
Sidhu-Robb’s remarks, revealed by PoliticsHome website, sparked an investigation by Liberal Democrats, which is the third-largest UK party after Labour and Conservative. The London mayoral election was due in May, but has been postponed due to the pandemic.
Footage from the 1997 campaign shows Sidhu-Robb saying she planned to inform voters about Straw’s faith, adding “how is a Muslim going to vote for someone who is Jewish?” She is then seen going around in a car in Blackburn, appealing to voters on a loudspeaker in Urdu.
“Don’t vote for a Jew, Jack Straw is a Jew…How is a Muslim going to vote for someone who is Jewish,” she is seen as saying. Straw is not of Jewish faith. The Blackburn constituency has a large minority of Islam faith, numbering around 25% of the population. Sidhu-Robb tweeted after the footage emerged: “I am deeply ashamed of the ignorant and abusive language I used on one occasion in the 1997 General Election campaign. As shown in the footage, I instantly regretted my appalling behaviour, which I continue to do.”
“Those words are entirely inconsistent with my views and values, and though there are no excuses for my actions, there is some context; that is, that I was
I made a mistake and I take responsibility for my abhorrent actions 23 years ago, they were never repeated GEETA SIDHU-ROBB,
former Liberal Democrats candidate for London mayor polls
under a great deal of strain and retaliated to the racial abuse I was receiving in Blackburn ‘like for like’.”
“Two wrongs never make a right. I made a mistake and I take responsibility for my abhorrent actions 23 years ago, they were never repeated. I urge you to judge me on who I am today, a campaigner committed to eradicating inequality and discrimination in all its forms,” she added. Announcing an investigation, a Liberal Democrats spokesperson, said, “Geeta Sidhu-Robb has been suspended from the Liberal Democrats and will not be on the ballot paper to be the Liberal Democrat candidate for Mayor of London”.
Sidhu-Robb was shortlisted for the mayoral candidacy alongside Liberal Democrats councillor Luisa Porrit, with the contest due to run until October 13. The party, which formed a coalition government with the Conservatives under David Cameron from 2010-2015, is finalising its candidate after Siobhan Benita, who was to contest against mayor Sadiq Khan, withdrew recently.