Brighton Labour Group in meltdown
BRIGHTON LABOUR Group has last control of the local council after two of the party’s councillors resigned folliwing investigations over allegations of antisemitism.
Meanwhile local Labour MP Lloyd Russell-Moyle resigned last week from the party’s frontbench after blaming a campaign by the “right wing media” which he said had unleashed a torrent of online hate and made his position untenable.
The Brighton Kemptown MP — an ally of former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn — has apologised twice in a month over Facebook comments in which he suggested Jewish claims to Israel were “not progressive in [their] very nature” and that Zionism was a “dangerous nationalist idea”.
It also emerged that the politician had written to Labour HQ last month in support of Rebecca Massey, an activist who said Israel had Labour and the Tories “under control”. She was suspended from Labour for backing notorious “Jewbaiter” ex-MP Chris Williamson.
Mr Russell-Moyle had also apologised to Harry Potter author JK Rowling last month after he accused her of using her own sexual assault as “justification” for discrimination against trans people.
Announcing his decision to stand down from Sir Keir Starmer’s frontbench, the MP said: ”It is with regret I leave the shadow ministry, owing to a campaign by right-wing media my position has become untenable.” He said
Vthe media had “unleashed a torrent of online hate and daily calls of harassment to my office, which has exposed those who work for me to abuse that would not be acceptable in any workplace”.
The MP’s decision to step down, last Thursday, began a turbulent week for Labour in Brighton.
The party lost control of Brighton Council when two councillors resigned from the party on Monday after being investigated for alleged antisemitism.
Councillor Nichole Brennan resigned from the local Labour Group on Monday evening and will now serve as an independent representing the East Brighton ward. Her exit came only hours after the departure of another councillor Kate Knight — and left the Greens as the largest party.
The duo’s departure came less than a week after the Labour administration was rocked by the suspension of one of its leading councillors, Anne Pissaridou, over the sharing of allegedly antisemitic material on social media.
All three councillors had been on the pro-Jeremy Corbyn slate of Momentum-backed candidates at last year’s elections.
Pictures of Ms Brennan holding up a sign calling Israel a “racist, apartheid state” had been given to local newspaper The Argus. In April, Cllr Brennan had described criticism of her conduct on antisemitism as “white supremacy”.
Cllr Knight has posted on social media the claim that “allegations of antisemitism are a last resort when facts about the treatment of the Palestinians cannot be disputed or justified.”
She also shared an article claiming Israel was “running a campaign against Jeremy Corbyn”.
Announcing her decision to stand down she said: “I abhor antisemitism which, along with all other forms of racism, is a scourge that blights our society and every political party. I am not antisemitic and I regret if anything I posted caused distress, as this was not my intention.”
Labour council leader Nancy Platts emailed her party on Monday evening: “I have just received notification that Cllr Brennan has resigned from the Labour Party and is no longer a member of the Labour Group.
Ms Brennan’s resignation left Labour with 18 of the 54 seats, the Greens with 19 and the Tories with 13.
Local Labour MP Peter Kyle tweeted: “In recent years voters, especially the Jewish community, have told Labour they want action not words...This is action, not words.
“This is Labour getting its house in order.”