Just what Corbyn needs – ex-BNP chief backs him!
Griffin tweet attacks ‘hysterical Zionists’
JEREMY Corbyn last night faced the double embarrassment of endorsements from ex-BNP leader Nick Griffin and a former Ku Klu Klan chief.
They came amid a fresh antiSemitism row as it emerged this week that the Labour leader said British Zionists had ‘no sense of irony’ despite having ‘lived in Britain all of their lives’ in a 2013 speech.
Mr Griffin, a far-Right activist, responded to his comments on Twitter, writing: ‘ Go Jezza!’, before criticising the ‘hysterical Zionist media campaign against Corbyn’. And former grand wizard of the white supremacist KKK, David Duke, endorsed a tweet by Mr Corbyn calling to ‘break the stranglehold of elite power and billionaire domination over large parts of our media’. Duke tweeted: ‘ He’s right, you know.’
The unwanted support came as Mr Corbyn was reported to Parliament’s standards watchdog over the speech, which he gave during a conference promoted by the propaganda website of terror group Hamas.
The fresh controversy came after a video emerged of Mr Corbyn addressing the conference.
Recalling a disagreement between some ‘Zionists’ after Palestinian representative Manuel Hassassian made a speech, the then backbench MP said: ‘[Hassassian’s speech] was dutifully recorded by the thankfully silent Zionists who were in the audience on that occasion, and then came up and berated him afterwards for what he’d said.
‘[British Zionists] clearly have two problems. One is they don’t want to study history, and secondly, having lived in this country for a very long time, probably all their lives, they don’t understand English irony either.’
Mr Corbyn defended himself last night, saying: ‘I described those pro-Israel activists as Zionists, in the accurate political sense and not as a euphemism for Jewish people.’ He added that he was now ‘more careful’ with the term, because it is being ‘ increasingly hijacked by anti-Semites’.
His Zionists remarks were earlier condemned by a string of Labour MPs.
Peter Kyle, who represents Hove and Portslade in Sussex, tweeted: ‘My God this sends chills down my spine. But will even the endorsement of a leading white supremacist spur @jeremycorbyn to treat this as an issue of substance...?’
Luciana Berger, a Jewish MP who has spoken of the anti- Semitic abuse she has received from Mr Corbyn’s supporters, said she felt ‘unwelcome’ in her own party after his ‘inexcusable comments’.
Mike Gapes, the Labour MP for Ilford South, wrote on social media: ‘It has come to this. And as a non-Jew I have total solidarity with @lucianaberger. I am sickened by the racism and anti-Semitism at the top of our party.’
David Lammy, the Tottenham MP, said: ‘The “English irony” comments are wrong and risk offending the 90 per cent of British Jews who identify as Zionists.’
Mr Corbyn is now facing a fresh investigation into whether he broke parliamentary rules by appearing to smear Jews as an alien culture.
Yesterday he was reported to parliamentary commissioner for standards Kathryn Stone by Tory vicechairman Helen Grant. Mrs Grant said the comments were ‘unbecoming of anyone in our society’.
Mr Corbyn has already been reported to the commissioner this month over his failure to declare a meeting with terror group Hamas in 2010. A spokesman for the Labour leader said: ‘Jeremy is totally opposed to all forms of anti-Semitism and is determined to drive it out from society.
‘At this event, he was referring to a group of pro-Israel activists misunderstanding and then criticising the Palestinian ambassador for a speech at a separate event about the occupation of the West Bank.’
‘Sends chills down my spine’