Will party EVER banish racism?

THE MoST eye- catching event at Labour’s conference in Brighton is probably a talk pondering what the party must do ‘to deserve the title “anti-racist”’. To which many might answer: rather a lot! Do Labour bigwigs need reminding that the Equalities and Human Rights Commission, no less, is investigating their woeful response to the poisonous anti-Semitism within the party’s ranks?

The anti-racist event is being hosted by Jeremy Corbyn’s praetorian guard Momentum — which led the botched attempt to topple deputy leader Tom Watson at the weekend.

The workshop will explore how the ‘movement’ can become ‘ the most effective anti-racist front possible’.

But what a controversial lot they are fielding. Leftie filmmaker Ken Loach will be speaking. In a BBC interview in September 2017, Loach was asked if Holocaust denial — a loathsome view that had reportedly been aired at a fringe Labour event that week — was acceptable.

His notorious response? ‘History is for all of us to discuss . . . The founding of the State of Israel, for example, based on ethnic cleansing, is there for us to discuss . . . So don’t try to subvert that by false stories of anti-Semitism.’

Loach was later adamant his words had been ‘ twisted’, adding: ‘ The Holocaust is as real a historical event as World War II itself and not to be challenged.’

other panellists at this week’s event include Jackie Walker, expelled from Labour in March over allegations of anti-Semitism; and former mayor of London Ken Livingstone, who quit Labour last year before he was pushed. For what? Why, allegations of anti-Semitism.