Mike Freer seeks expats for votes

LABOUR STUDENT activist has revealed that the backlash she received for speaking out against antisemitism led her to contemplate suicide.

In a moving Twitter thread, 19-yearold Hull University student Isobel Housecroft spoke of her disappointment in her fellow Labour members who denied the existence of antisemitism in the party.

She said that the worst comments she heard included those which branded Israel an “illegal state”, and she was even called a “dirty Jew” by a Labour colleague — despite not being Jewish.

Ms Housecroft’s depression was triggered following her decision to be interviewed for the BBC exposé on antisemitism in the Labour Party — although her filmed segment was cut at the last minute.

A few days before she was due to be interviewed, “a friend and Labour supporter told me there’d be ‘long-term consequences’ to speaking out and said most of my Labour friends would never speak to me again because of it.

“I was ‘betraying Corbyn’ and that wasn’t OK.”

Ms Housecroft, from Dewsbury in West Yorkshire, told the she later experienced

Isobel Housecroft feelings of “guilt” over speaking out on the behaviour of her Labour colleagues.

She wrote: “I couldn’t see a way to speak out and not lose/disappoint friends. I didn’t realise I was doing the right thing and that those people didn’t matter.

“I couldn’t see a way out, so I contemplated suicide.

“I wrote a note apologising to my family and friends for failing.

“I’m very lucky and very grateful to have been talked down.

“In the hours and days after the documentary, I was inundated with supportive messages that I still sometimes read.

“Alongside this came the meaningless platitudes from people who’d been complicit for four years.

“We talk the talk on mental health in the Labour Party but I’m afraid we don’t walk the walk.

“Others spoke about feeling suicidal and received no support.

“We claim to care about whistleblowers but were prepared to take legal action against those in our own party.”

She said that when she first reported online antisemitism — when she was aged 17 — she received a “torrent of abuse from the so-called left”, describing the ordeal as “horrendous”.

VFINCHLEY AND Golders Green Conservative candidate Mike Freer is campaigning among former residents of the marginal seat now living in Israel, urging them to back him at next month’s General Election.

The politician, who is a whip in Boris Johnson’s government, is hoping to exploit rules which allow registered overseas electors to vote in the UK for up to 15 years after they leave to maximise his support on December 12.

Mr Freer sent a message to the 7,000-member Brits living in Israel Facebook group last week suggesting they consider casting proxy votes for him in the north London seat.

He wrote: “As parliament ‘washes up’ as it’s called, I will cease to be MP for Finchley and Golders Green next Tuesday at midnight and I will become the Conservative candidate.

“Naturally I will be working hard to be re-elected to stop Corbyn or a Corbyn coalition of Labour/LibDems/SNP.

“I love representing Finchley and Golders Green and I am hoping to be re-elected.”

Mr Freer then gave his email address for those requiring assistance and urged former Finchley and Golders Green constituents to “think of a proxy vote so you don’t have to rely on the vagaries of the postal system.”

It is not known how many of the group’s members are former Finchley and Golders Green residents.

Mr Freer told the that he had “kept in touch with expats over the years — not just in Israel.” He added that he had done this “simply to remind people that they can still vote if they were on the register within the last 15 years and have British citizenship”.

At the 2017 General Election Mr Freer retained his seat, which he has held since 2010, with a narrow 1,600 majority over the then Labour candidate Jeremy Newmark.

In December his most prominent challenger will probably be the Liberal Democrat candidate Luciana Berger — with polls suggesting a two-horse race in the constituency.

But Labour candidate Ross Houston

VTHE BBC is set to reject Labour’s formal complaint over the investigation into the party’s antisemitism crisis.

It is understood that the BBC’s Executive Complaints Unit has concluded its investigation into the documentary, aired in July, which saw former party staffers blow the whistle on the party’s problems tackling anti-Jewish racism.

Jeremy Corbyn spearheaded a fullscale offensive on the claims made in the show, accusing the BBC of allowing a broadcast with “many, many inaccuracies”.

Sources have told the that the probe, undertaken by the corporation’s highest disciplinary body, has reported back and has not upheld any of Labour’s complaints about the documentary.

The decision will embarrass Labour, who have attempted to bury the antisemitism row that has engulfed the party, as they launch their general election manifesto.

Labour’s lengthy complaint to the BBC had singled out the presenter, investigative reporter John Ware, for criticism - accusing him of holding “hostile” views of Mr

Corbyn.

John Ware

Mike Freer has rejected claims he is likely to finish third in December’s vote, telling the “I don’t think any of the candidates or parties should ever take the electorate for granted.”

It is understood that Mr Freer had originally intended to conduct a speaking tour of Israel in September. But the planned trip, which involved meetings with Brits living in Israel group members, had to be cancelled due to Brexit votes in parliament.

Leaflets advertising the visit were circulated in at least two synagogues in Jerusalem.

On the morning before the aired, Corbynite campaign group Momentum tweeted a 40-second video which attacked what it claimed was Mr Ware’s recent journalistic track record, concluding by asking its followers: “Does this seem like impartial journalism?”

The documentary claimed senior figures, including Mr Corbyn’s communications chief Seumas Milne and general secretary Jennie Formby, interfered in antisemitism investigations. It also featured interviews with a succession of Labour whistleblowers who have given evidence to the EHRC watchdog investigation into claims Mr Corbyn now leads an “institutionally antisemitic” party. Momentum founder Jon Lansman also suggested that the whistleblowers were “former staffers with an axe to grind”.

In September, the revealed Labour was being sued for libel by five exparty staffers over alleged smears they have been subjected to since was aired.

It is understood that Mr Ware is now also suing the party over its criticism of his reputation in public statements issued in advance of the broadcast of the episode.