Row over Iranian TV reporter at Labour vote

Iranian state-backed Press TV has been criticised by members of the British Labour party for filming a constituency meeting as it passed a no-confidence vote in the chairwoman of Labour Friends of Israel and Enfield North MP, Joan Ryan.

Labour activists on Friday called for an inquiry into the television station, which is banned in the UK, saying that filming was not permitted in the room.

“Warnings were issued about filming, including a direct warning to the member in question,” Enfield North party chairman, Siddo Dwyer, wrote on Twitter. “It didn’t occur to any of us at the time that they were from a state broadcaster.”

Mr Dwyer’s Twitter account has since shut down.

According to The Telegraph, the journalist was able to film the meeting because he had joined the Labour party several months ago.

Roshan Salih, a journalist at Press TV, said there were “no general warnings issued, no posters, no approach to the person we obtained footage from”.

Blairite Ms Ryan, whose criticism of party leader Jeremy Corbyn’s alleged antisemitism made her unpopular among some party members, claimed the Iranian journalist had targeted her because of her support for Israel.

“I’m horrified that they’ve infiltrated the Labour party in this way and I think it needs to be investigated because it is incredibly serious,” she told The Telegraph.

Some party members viewed the pro-Israel MP and her criticism of the Labour leader as a nuisance. However, the vote of no confidence to remove her was close – by 92 votes to 94.

“So lost 92 to 94 votes hardly decisive victory and it never occurred to me that Trots Stalinists Communists and assorted hard left would have confidence in me. I have none in them,” she wrote in a disparaging tweet about her critics.

Press TV’s licence was revoked by regulator Ofcom in 2012, citing a breach of licence rules over editorial control of the channel and failure to pay a £100,000 fine (Dh474,560). The regulator also concluded that the editorial decisions on the channel were made in Tehran, not the UK.