CORBYN’S DIRTY DOZEN
As Labour lurches from crisis to crisis, roll call of shame for its would-be MPs
LABOUR was embroiled in an extraordinary crisis yesterday after a string of its election candidates found themselves caught in controversy.
In the space of 24 hours, three have been forced to quit while nine others came under pressure to step down after controversial remarks they had made in the past were exposed.
The row is highly embarrassing for leader Jeremy Corbyn at the end of the first week of the election campaign. In total, a dozen Labour candidates have faced controversy in the past seven days.
In a day of disaster for the party, one candidate was forced to quit after allegedly referring to a Jewish councillor as Shylock.
Another came under pressure to stand down after sharing misogynistic posts about female politicians. A third has been accused of defending her adviser who wrote about a ‘Jewish final solution’ by suggesting that ‘the context somewhat excuses the remarks’.
Yesterday, Liz Truss, minister for women and equalities, said the revelations were a ‘shocking indictment’ of Mr Corbyn’s leadership.
She added: ‘Some of the views held by these official Labour candidates are completely unacceptable. They are not fit to serve in Parliament. Why will he not show some leadership, take action and tell them to stand down?
‘He promised a kinder politics yet his feeble response to this crisis in his party show that he is simply not fit to lead.’
But a Labour source said: ‘We’ve conducted extensive due diligence checks on candidates and we have taken swift and robust action where necessary.
‘In a snap general election hundreds of candidates have to be immediately selected and staff have worked incredibly hard to conduct due diligence in time.’
The candidates are:
ACCUSED OF CALLING POLITICIAN ‘SHYLOCK’
1. GIDEON BULL was forced to stand down after allegedly referring to a Jewish councillor as Shylock.
Mr Bull, a councillor in Haringey, north London, pulled out of the race for Clacton in Essex, after admitting that he had used the anti-Semitic slur.
But it emerged that Labour knew about the anti-Semitic comments before selecting Mr Bull as a candidate. The party has not commented on the case.
He said it was ‘entirely false’ that he had been referring to councillor Zena Brabazon, but admitted using the term during a private meeting.
Incredibly, he claimed he did not realise that the Shakespearean villain was Jewish. Shylock is a ruthless Jewish moneylender and principal antagonist in The Merchant of Venice.
MISOGYNISTIC WEB POSTS
2. IAN BYRNE came under pressure to quit after sharing misogynistic posts about female politicians. The councillor, who was personally backed by Jeremy Corbyn, shared a post about Baroness Mone saying: ‘Hit the **** where it hurts’, LBC reported.
Mr Byrne, candidate for the safe seat of Liverpool West Derby also posted a Facebook message saying Tory housing minister Esther McVey was a ‘b****** and soon to be gone’.
Despite the comments, he was selected as a candidate and has not been dropped by the party. On Thursday, the Labour leader gave a speech in Manchester with Mr Byrne sat behind him.
Mr Byrne was also forced to apologise for making jokes about the Paralympic Games looking like ‘a night out in Salford’ and for making a homophobic slur in 2012 and 2013. In 2014, he called Prince William a ‘horse faced t***’.
A statement from Mr Byrne read: ‘I am deeply sorry for the inappropriate and offensive language from the shopfloor that I used several years ago on social media and would not use today.’
ACCUSED OVER ‘FINAL SOLUTION’
3. LAURA MCALPINE has been accused of defending her chief campaigner after he wrote about a ‘Jewish final solution’.
Miss McAlpine, who is aiming to unseat Conservative Robert Halfon in Harlow, is said to have supported aide Brett Hawksbee, according to Jewish News.
This was despite one party official warning he had ‘ breached IHRA (the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance definition of anti-Semitism) in almost every single way possible’.
Mr Hawksbee blogged in September 2018 that some in Israel would be happy to see a ‘pogrom in Gaza and the West Bank, a Jewish final solution to the Palestine problem’.
One email circulated to Labour staffers, which was obtained by the Jewish News, said: ‘She [Miss McAlpine] isn’t happy with the first line [of the apology] because she doesn’t want to be disloyal to someone who “organises so much for her and who she is on the phone with three times a day”.’
The email continued: ‘She also echoed his view that the context somewhat excuses the remarks.’
Yesterday, Miss McAlpine said: ‘I did not and would not defend Brett Hawksbee’s remarks in this blog.
‘ Brett’s comparison between Israel and the Nazis was unacceptable and last year he made a full apology for making such a comparison.’
SHARED THERESA MAY GUN IMAGE
4. KATE OSBORNE shared an image appearing to show Theresa May with a gun to her head, prompting calls for Labour to block her as a candidate.
Miss Osborne, who is expected to be parachuted into the safe seat of Jarrow, appeared to post the ‘deeply concerning’ image on Facebook during the 2017 general election campaign.
It depicts the former prime minister wincing while being threatened with a weapon to stop saying the words ‘strong and stable’, according to the HuffPost.
Miss Osborne, who is a member of Unite the union’s executive council, apologised unreservedly, adding that as a woman she was ‘extremely concerned’ about the misogyny her colleagues received.
SENT THREATENING TWEET ABOUT RIVAL
5. FRANCES HOOLE, who was selected for Edinburgh South West, was accused of posting a threatening tweet aimed at her rival, the SNP’s Joanna Cherry.
The tweet had the slogan ‘bang and the Terf [trans- exclusionary radical feminist] is gone’.
The term Terf is used to insult equality campaigners who do not agree that transgender rights take precedence over women’s rights.
Miss Cherry, who brought the court case against the Government for proroguing Parliament, shared the tweet, saying she had received a death threat and a ‘storm of misogynistic abuse for defending women’s rights’.
Miss Hoole told the Edinburgh Evening News: ‘I am genuinely really sorry I posted it. I’m sorry about the violent content. It was silly, I posted it without looking very hard at it.’
In light of the tweet, Scottish Labour’s executive committee removed her as the candidate.
FOUGHT TO KEEP STRIP CLUB OPEN
6. SOPHIE WILSON campaigned with strippers against the closure of a lap dancing club, prompting calls for her to be dropped as a candidate. Opponents of the Spearmint
Rhino club in Sheffield claimed the venue was associated with ‘sexual exploitation’ of women.
But Miss Wilson, 23, who has been selected to fight Rotherham, called those who wanted to close the club ‘so gross’ and said they were ‘trashy SWERFS’ (sex worker-exclusionary radical feminists).
Campaigners against the club include Sammy Woodhouse, a victim of the Rotherham child sex grooming gangs, who accused Miss Wilson of ‘disgusting’ behaviour.
Miss Wilson, a city councillor in Sheffield, insists that she was supporting the rights of those working at Spearmint Rhino and not backing the exploitation of women or club bosses.
CHILD ABUSE COMPARISONS
7. KATE RAMSDEN stood down in Gordon, Scotland, after it emerged that she had compared the actions of Israel to those of a child abuser.
In a blog post, she also reportedly said anti-Semitism claims against Jeremy Corbyn were ‘orchestrated by the wealthy Establishment’. Miss Ramsden apologised and said: ‘I can see that many Jewish people have been hurt by my words. That was never my intention.’
ANTI-WHITE RACIST SLANG
8. ZARAH SULTANA is still under
pressure to quit after she said she would ‘ celebrate’ the death of Tony Blair and Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu. The candidate for Coventry South also referred to a Jewish student as ‘YT’ – from the slang ‘whitey’, which is used to disparage white people. Miss Sultana has apologised for her comments about Mr Blair and Mr Netanyahu – but refused to stand down as a candidate.
SPREAD CONSPIRACY THEORIES ABOUT 9/11
9. ALI MILANI, the Labour candidate seeking to oust Boris Johnson, made anti-Semitic comments online and promoted 9/11 conspiracy theories. The Momentumbacked candidate, who is challenging the Prime Minister for his seat in Uxbridge, west London, used the tag ‘#jew’ and the word Zionist as an insult in messages.
And he claimed the September 11, 2001, terror attacks were ‘false flag’ operations, suggesting the US government was behind them. He said later: ‘I made some remarks I’m deeply embarrassed by and have unreservedly apologised for.’
COMPARED BLAIR TO HITLER
10. JANE AITCHISON compared celebrating the death of Tony Blair to cheering the death of Adolf Hitler.
The candidate for Pudsey in West Yorkshire made the controversial comments as she tried to defend Miss Sultana’s comments about the former prime minister.
Miss Aitchison said: ‘I apologise for causing offence, but I said in the interview that I did not condone anyone celebrating the death of anyone, and I do not.’
JAILED FOR £120,000 INSIDER TRADING
11. MATT UBEROI was jailed for a £120,000 insider trading scam with his dentist father in 2009.
Despite his one-year sentence for the scam, he is running in Chelsea and Fulham. When contacted by the
Daily Mail, Mr Uberoi said he would have been fully within his rights to keep his conviction secret.
He and Labour both said he had instead been ‘up front and honest’ about his jail term to the local and national party and had learned from his mistake. He already serves as a councillor.
‘HOLOCAUST MONGER’ MESSAGES
12. KATE LINNEGAR posted messages about ‘Holocaust mongers’ and liked a post entitled ‘How Israel lobby manufactured UK Labour Party’s anti-Semitism crisis’.
She also liked another post which described the Jewish State as a ‘so- called country’ and defended former London mayor Ken Livingstone as a ‘decent man’.
Miss Linnegar propagated material which claimed allegations Labour was biased against Jews were a ‘ smear campaign’, and a post which ‘compared the actions of Israel to Nazi Germany’.
Despite this, she is standing as a candidate in North Swindon.
Last night she said: ‘I sincerely apologise for having liked or shared these posts in the past and for the offence this has caused.’
The Labour Party added: ‘ Kate made full apologies and demonstrated her understanding of why the posts were wrong.’