MP sorry for ‘clumsy tweet’
BARRY SHEERMAN IS ACCUSED OF MAKING ANTI-SEMITIC COMMENTS
HUDDERSFIELD MP Barry Sheerman has been forced to apologise after a “clumsy” tweet which was perceived by some as anti-semitic.
On Saturday, he tweeted to mystified followers: “Apparently there has been a bit of a run on silver shekels!”
When Twitter users asked him to explain his cryptic tweet, he posted another one which referred to the first, saying: “Apparently Richard Desmond & Philip Green were on the original list for seats in the House of Lords!”
But the backlash was so fierce he later deleted both tweets and hours later tweeted: “I apologise for my earlier tweet.
“I did not intend the meaning which has upset many, and I am very sorry for the upset and offense I have caused.
“I will think more carefully in future and will reflect on this...I have fought anti-semitism all my political life & have been a Labour Friend of Israel since joining as a student at the LSE. I am deeply sorry that my clumsy tweet has caused offence.”
A spokesperson for Campaign Against Anti-Semitism, said: “Barry Sheerman’s first reaction on hearing that two prominent Jewish businessmen supposedly missed out on peerages is to think about ‘silver shekels,’ alluding in one fell swoop to both classic and modern antisemitic tropes about Jews corrupting politics with money and being more loyal to Israel than their own countries.
“Mr Sheerman must immediately face disciplinary proceedings and lose the whip of both the Labour and Co-operative Parties.
“Sir Keir Starmer also has a more fundamental question to answer about his parliamentary party; how long are Labour MPs capable of going without making brazenly antisemitic statements? Labour’s antisemitism problem apparently goes well beyond the Party’s far-left contingent.”
Mr Sheerman, a prominent Remainer, told the Examiner: “I was very angry about Boris Johnson’s list of people being nominated to go into the House of Lords, a lot of them basically for their support of his Brexit strategy.
“During lockdown I have been reading the Bible and I thought I would tweet about 30 pieces of silver.
“I was reading the Gospel of John and the betrayal of Jesus by Judas Iscariot and I thought I would Google the expression and found it referred to shekels instead of silver so that was the background to my tweet.
“I was stupidly smart and I have apologised immediately for any offence caused and withdrew the tweets.
“During lockdown there has been a real sense of cabin fever and I have become a bit obsessed with Twitter, how many followers I have, likes etc and I made a mistake.
“It is unfortunate that one careless tweet has offended many people when I have been an anti-semitism campaigner all my life and only spoke to my constituency party on Friday about rooting out the horror of anti-semitism. I am coming off Twitter for a while. I thought I was being so clever.”