Woman set to run Labour hired aide AFTER she was suspended for anti-Semitism
THE frontrunner to become Labour’s next general secretary employed a woman who was suspended from the Labour party for saying Jews had ‘big noses’.
Jennie Formby – a senior figure in Unite, Britain’s largest trade union – gave a contract to Vicki Kirby last year.
Miss Kirby was suspended in 2014 over a series of anti-Semitic Twitter posts in which she called Adolf Hitler a ‘Zionist God’.
But Miss Formby, an ally of Jeremy Corbyn, gave her a job with the union after she was re-admitted to the party.
The revelation will raise more questions about Labour’s apparent tolerance of antiSemitism within its ranks. It will also put extra pressure on Miss Formby ahead of next week’s meeting of Labour’s ruling executive to appoint the general secretary.
Yesterday, a Labour MP said that she should be quizzed over the decision during her interview for the job, the most senior bureaucratic role in the party.
John Mann, who chairs the All-Party Parliamentary Group Against Antisemitism, said the decision to employ Miss Kirby was ‘hugely inappropriate’.
He said: ‘An appointment like that breaks all the true traditions of the trade unions. We need to see more due diligence. Such a person would be hugely inappropriate either in a trade union or employed by the
‘The appointment breaks traditions’
Labour Party. ’ Miss Kirby was suspended by Labour after making anti-Semitic comments online between 2011 and 2014. In one, she said: ‘ We invented Israel when saving them from Hitler, who now seems to be their teacher.’ Another said: ‘What do you know about Jews? They’ve got big noses and support Spurs lol.’
One tweet said: ‘Point about Jews is that they OCCUPY Palestine. Used to live together, now slaughter the oppressed.’
Another message said: ‘Who is the Zionist God? I am starting to think it may be Hitler. #FreePalestine.’
Miss Kirby was re-admitted to the Labour Party between 2014 and 2016 after being issued with a warning and forced to resign as a parliamentary candidate. She was suspended again in March 2016 after an outcry from MPs at the fact she had been re-admitted and was acting as vice-chair of Woking Labour Party.
The Independent, which revealed the story, said that, according to Unite sources, Miss Formby would have had to approve Miss Kirby’s appointment. They also said that she would almost certainly have directly recruited Miss Kirby for the job, though Unite inists the role was allocated after a joint decision by a number of officials.
Miss Formby is the regional secretary in Unite’s south-east office in Slough, Berkshire. Miss Kirby worked as a regional officer in the same office. She worked as a ‘stand- down’ regional officer for Unite – a temporary appointment used to fill a gap when an employee retires or is off work ill.
Unite documents shown to the website state that regional officers report directly to the regional secretary. A Unite source told the site: ‘ Nobody gets appointed as a stand- down officer without the regional secretary approving it. The idea she knew nothing about it is nonsense.’ A Unite spokesman said Miss Kirby had repeatedly apologised for her remarks and had been appointed by the union ‘following a procedure involving lay members and other officials’.
He said: ‘Vicki Kirby made appalling anti-Semitic remarks on Twitter for which she was rightly sanctioned by the Labour Party. Miss Kirby has never been an employee of Unite, although she did two months’ temporary organising work for the union after she had been reinstated into the Labour Party.’ Miss Formby is widely seen as frontrunner for the general secretary role. The general secretary is responsible for overseeing the enforcement of rules and responding to allegations of wrongdoing, including anti-Semitism, by members. Miss Formby’s main rival, Momentum founder and chairman Jon Lansman dropped out of the race last weekend.