Labour frontbencher in Rowling row quits

‘A Labour source said he was increasingly viewed as a liability and had been spoken to a number of times’

A LABOUR frontbencher has resigned after having to apologise to JK Rowling and to British Jews over separate social media posts in a matter of weeks.

Lloyd Russell-moyle, a shadow environment minister, blamed the “Rightwing media” for his decision to step down.

A Labour source said he was increasingly viewed as “a liability”, adding that he had been spoken to a number of times over previous incidents.

The MP for Brighton Kemptown and Peacehaven was forced to apologise to Harry Potter author Rowling after accusing her of exploiting a past sexual assault “as justification” for questioning the rights of trans people.

He then had to say sorry after a newspaper published Facebook posts from 2017 in which he suggested that Zionism was a “dangerous nationalist idea”.

He had also written a letter in support of a Labour activist who had claimed Israel had Labour and the Conservatives “under control”.

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer sacked his shadow education secretary Rebecca Long-bailey last month after she shared an interview with an antiisraeli conspiracy theorist on Twitter.

♦ Jeremy Corbyn’s wife has called on people not to buy The Guardian, claiming this is “important for our mental health”. Laura Alvarez posted on social media after the newspaper said it would cut up to 180 jobs. It also reported that Labour was to apologise to anti-semitism whistleblowers who say they were attacked by senior figures when Mr Corbyn was leader.