Labour may face Brighton ban over anti-semitism

A Labour council leader has threatened to stop the party holding future conferences in Brighton unless it gets a grip on anti-semitism.

Warren Morgan, of Brighton and Hove Council, wrote to the Labour Party general secretary Iain Mcnicol to say that as council leader, “I will undoubtedly face questions as to why we allow any event where anti-semitic views are freely expressed to happen in the city, particularly on council premises”.

After ugly scenes at Labour’s conference, in which Israel has been compared to Nazi Germany at fringe events, Mr Morgan said he needed “reassurances that there will be no repeat of the behaviour and actions we have seen this week”.

He added: “We are a city of sanctuary and I have to speak up against any form of racism as and when it is given a platform in the city.”

Tom Watson, Labour’s deputy leader, has called for activists who allegedly made anti-semitic comments to be expelled, as Jeremy Corbyn was forced to deny that Labour was the “nasty party”.

The Labour leader was urged to use a hardening in the party’s rules about anti-jewish comments – which was only agreed by the conference yesterday – to throw out party members.

The row erupted on Monday when activists at a fringe meeting called for the Jewish Labour Movement and Labour Friends of Israel to be “kicked out” of the party. One speaker allegedly claimed it was part of free speech to ask the question: “Holocaust: yes or no?”.

Speaking on breakfast television, Mr Watson said: “If there was Holocaust denial, these people have no right to be in Labour and should be expelled.”

Mr Corbyn tried to defuse the row saying: “This is not a nasty party. This is the biggest Labour conference we have had for many, many years. Nobody should be abused, whoever they are. Anyone using anti-semitic language, anyone using any form of racist language, is completely at odds with the beliefs of this party.”