Blunt rejects criticism over conference event

CONSERVATIVE MP Crispin Blunt, chairman of the Foreign Affairs Select Committee, has defended his decision to chair an event alongside a campaigner who supported the blood libel cleric Raed Salah.

A fringe session at last week’s Conservative Party conference featured Mr Blunt speaking on a panel with Ismail Patel, chairman of the Leicester-based Friends of Al-Aqsa group.

Mr Patel was a leading supporter of Sheikh Salah when the Palestinian cleric successfully defeated Theresa May’s attempt as Home Secretary to deport him from Britain in 2012.

J u d g e s r u l e d Sheikh Salah was free to remain in Britain despite having given a sermon in 2007 in which he invoked the blood libel.

Mr Blunt was criticised by some politcal and communal figures for sharing a platform with Mr Patel. But the MP told the hehadbeenunawareof MrPatel’s former activities, because “a basic Google search didn’t reveal it”.

He added: “Chairing a meeting does not amount to endorsing the panellist’s views, not least when they are set to present different viewpoints in a debate.

“Additionally I prefer an approach that engages with controversial speak- ers and provides an opportunity for accountability.

“There would have to be very serious reasons to disengage from dialogue, and guilt by association at one remove with a ridiculous and discredited thesis does not cut it.”

Mr Patel was on board the Mavi Marmara boat which was part of a flotilla which attempted to reach Gaza in 2010. Activists on the ship clashed with the Israeli navy and nine Turkish citizens were killed.

In January the Co-operative Bank closed the Friends of Al-Aqsa’s bank account.

The session in BirminghamonTuesdaylastweek was organised by Mr Patel’s group. It focused on whether British aid to the Palestinian territories was a “help or hindrance to justice”.

MrBluntisseenasaseniorCommons figure thanks to his select committee role. He is a former chair of the Council for the Advancement of Arab-British Understanding and is regarded as a long-standing supporter of the Palestinian cause.

In a statement released last Friday, theBoardof DeputiesurgedMrBluntto apologise for appearing with Mr Patel.

Board vice-president Marie van der Zyl said: “Crispin Blunt’s defence of his decision to chair an event alongside Ismail Patel is itself indefensible.”

A basic Google search did not reveal controversy’