Corbyn must resign over terror graves visit: Javid
HOME Secretary Sajid Javid has suggested that Jeremy Corbyn should resign as Labour leader following controversy over his visit to a cemetery in Tunisia containing memorials to PLO terrorists.
Mr Javid said the leader of any other mainstream political party would have to leave their post if they did the same.
Questions were raised over the 2014 trip after the Daily Mail published pictures of the Labour leader holding a wreath near the graves of some of those responsible for the massacre of Israeli athletes at the 1972 Munich Olympics. Labour said Mr Corbyn had already made clear that he was paying his respects to the victims of a 1985 Israeli airstrike on Palestinian Liberation Organisation (PLO) offices in Tunis.
But the Mail said its own visit to the Martyrs Cemetery had shown the pictures were taken in front of a plaque honouring the founder of Black September, which carried out the Munich atrocity, while the airstrike memorial was 15 yards away.
It quoted from Mr Corbyn’s own account at the time in the Morning Star, in which he said that wreaths had been laid not only at the memorial, but also “on the graves of others killed by Mossad agents in Paris in 1991”.
Responding to the photos, the chair of the Jewish Leadership Council, Jonathan Goldstein, told the Jewish News: “This man is not fit to be a Member of Parliament, let alone a national leader. He has spent his entire political career cavorting with conspiracy theorists, terrorists and revolutionaries who seek to undo all the good for which our ancestors have given their lives. In so many ways, enough is enough.”
And Mr Javid said in a tweet: “If this was the leader of any other major political party, he or she would be gone by now.”
Writing in the Sunday Mirror, shadow chancellor John McDonnell said: “Both Jeremy Corbyn and I have made clear that racism and anti-Semitism have no place in the Labour Party.
“Labour will resolve any outstanding issues within our party and get out there to assist the Jewish community in fighting anti-Semitism and racism.” MORE than half of voters believe Boris Johnson should not face disciplinary action for his comments about the burka, according to a new poll.
The ComRes survey for the Sunday Express found 53% were opposed to punishment for the former Foreign Secretary, against 40% who said he deserved to be disciplined.
The poll was released as Mr Johnson returned to the UK from a holiday in Italy amid an escalating civil war within the Conservative Party over his description of Muslim women in face-covering veils as looking like “letterboxes” or “bank robbers”.
Brexit-backing MP Jacob Rees-Mogg denounced the investigation launched into Mr Johnson’s remarks as a “show trial” motivated by Theresa May’s personal rivalry with a man many see as her likely successor.
The Sunday Times reported that four Cabinet ministers had
Boris Johnson brings tea for reporters camped outside his home
privately expressed dismay at the handling of the case.
And Tory MP Andrew Bridgen, a supporter of Mr Johnson, warned of “open warfare” in the Conservative Party if he was suspended in such a way that he could not take part in a future
leadership contest. Mr Johnson made no comment to waiting reporters as he arrived back at his Oxfordshire home on Saturday evening, but is expected to break his silence in his regular column in the Daily Telegraph today, where his controversial comments were first printed seven days ago.
He emerged from the house briefly yesterday afternoon to offer drinks to reporters waiting outside.
But he made no comment on his controversial article, saying only: “I have nothing to say about this matter except to offer you some tea.”
Far-right US activist Steve Bannon, who during his recent visit to the UK was in contact with Mr Johnson, urged him not to “bow at the altar of political correctness” by apologising.
The former aide to Donald Trump told the Sunday Times that Mr Johnson had “nothing to apologise for”.
Amid complaints from supporters of an attempt to gag Mr Johnson, the ComRes poll found that 60% of respondents believe that rights to free speech are being weakened, against just 5% who said they were strengthening.
Support for Mr Johnson was markedly higher among older generations, with 77% of over65s and 63% of 55-64-year-olds saying he should not face discipline, while 62% of 18-24-yearolds and 55% of those in the 2534 age group saying he should.
The poll found that Mrs May remains voters’ preferred leader of the Conservatives by a margin of 26% to 24% over Mr Johnson, with 42% opting for “neither”.
Former First Secretary of State Damian Green, who was Mrs May’s de facto deputy, said he feared Mr Johnson was “being turned into a martyr by the alt-Right”, which would be “a disaster for him and the Conservative Party”.
Writing for the Mail on Sunday, he said: “I am particularly concerned by reports that President Trump’s sacked adviser Steve Bannon is forming a Europe-wide far-Right campaign group — and has been in touch with Boris. I hope that no Conservative politician, including Boris, is taking advice from him about how the Conservative Party should behave.”