Just what Corbyn needs – ex-BNP chief backs him!
Griffin tweet attacks ‘hysterical Zionists’
JEREMY Corbyn yesterday received an endorsement from former BNP leader Nick Griffin over comments that appeared to smear British Jews.
It emerged this week that the Labour leader said British Zionists had ‘no sense of irony’ despite having ‘lived in Britain all of their lives’ during a speech in 2013.
Mr Griffin, a far-Right activist, responded to his comments on Twitter, writing: ‘Go Jezza!’, before criticising the ‘hysterical Zionist media campaign against Corbyn’.
The unwanted support came as Mr Corbyn was reported to Parliament’s standards watchdog over the speech, which he gave during a conference promoted by the propaganda website of terror group Hamas.
He is now facing a fresh investigation into whether he broke parliamentary rules by appearing to smear Jews as an alien culture. Mr Corbyn has been fighting claims of anti-Semitism in his party for most of the three years of his leadership but the latest disclosure is the most damaging blow to his claims that he opposes prejudice against Jews.
His remarks were condemned by a string of Labour MPs.
Peter Kyle, who represents Hove and Portslade in Sussex, tweeted: ‘My God this sends chills down my spine. But will even the endorsement of a leading white supremacist spur @jeremycorbyn to treat this as an issue of substance...?’
Luciana Berger, a Jewish MP who has spoken of the anti-Semitic abuse she has received from Mr Corbyn’s supporters, said she felt ‘unwelcome’ in her own party after his ‘inexcusable comments’.
Mike Gapes, the Labour MP for Ilford South, wrote on social media: ‘It has come to this. And as a nonJew I have total solidarity with @lucianaberger. I am sickened by the racism and anti-Semitism at the top of our party.’
David Lammy, a minister in consecutive Labour governments, said:
‘Sends chills down my spine’
‘The “English irony” comments are wrong and risk offending the 90 per cent of British Jews who identify as Zionists, not only those referred to at the start of this speech.
‘That’s why I condemn this type of insidious language, wherever it comes from.’
The fresh controversy came after a video emerged of Mr Corbyn addressing the conference.
Recalling a disagreement between some ‘Zionists’ after Palestinian representative Manuel Hassassian made a speech, the then backbench MP said: ‘[Hassassian’s speech] was dutifully recorded by the thankfully silent Zionists who were in the audience on that occasion, and then came up and berated him after- wards for what he’d said. [British Zionists] clearly have two problems. One is they don’t want to study history, and secondly, having lived in this country for a very long time, probably all their lives, they don’t understand English irony either.’
Yesterday he was reported to parliamentary commissioner for standards Kathryn Stone by Tory vicechairman Helen Grant.
Mrs Grant said the comments were ‘unbecoming of anyone in our society – let alone an elected Member of Parliament’.
The Labour leader has already been reported to the commissioner this month over his failure to declare a visit to meet terror group Hamas during a visit to Israel and the West Bank in 2010.
He has also faced criticism for a separate trip to the Tunisian capital Tunis at a wreath-laying ceremony in a cemetery where members of Black September – the terror group behind the 1972 Munich Olympics attack – are buried.
A spokesman for Mr Corbyn denied the comments were offensive, saying: ‘He was referring to a group of pro-Israel activists misunderstanding – and then criticising – the Palestinian ambassador for a speech at a separate event about the occupation of the West Bank.’