Labour member quits over racist tweet claim
PAUL CONNOLLY ACCUSED OF ANTI-SEMITIC COMMENTS
A HUDDERSFIELD Labour member has quit the party after being accused of making anti-Semitic comments on social media.
Paul Connolly was set to stand for the Labour Party in Almondbury ward in May’s local elections before they were postponed.
He was suspended in March after tweets were highlighted by Never_ Again2020, a twitter feed that exposes anti-Semitism.
It drew attention to tweets from 2018 and 2019 in which Mr Connolly referred to “Jewish hate mongers” and “the Israeli lobby.”
Never Again, which was set up last year to direct attention to concerns around anti-Semitism in the Labour
Party, branded Mr Connolly as antiSemitic and said he was “reported to the party a year ago but he hasn’t even been suspended.”
Labour administratively suspended Mr Connolly within hours of the matter being raised by YorkshireLive. Mr Connolly is understood to have resigned a few days later and is no longer a member of the Labour Party.
A Labour Party spokesperson said: “Racism of any kind has no place in the Labour Party.
“We take all complaints seriously and they are dealt with in line with the party’s rules and procedures.”
In re-tweeting a screenshot of Mr Connolly’s tweets Never Again wrote: “The likes of Connolly have poisoned our politics, and they should be treated as racist pariahs.”
The tweet was then re-tweeted by the Labour Anti-Semitism Mapping Project, which “maps” the behaviour of MPs, councillors, officers and candidates for parliament, local councils and the National Executive Committee of the Labour Party.
Statistics based on “available evidence” and provided by the group show a steady rise in reports of antiSemitic incidents involving current or former Labour members.
In 2016 the number was mapped at 27 rising to 37 in 2017, 148 in 2018 and more than doubling in 2019 to 308. By March 2020 it had mapped 41 incidents.
On its website it writes: “The goal is to show that anti-Semitism is prevalent at all levels in the Labour Party.”
Mr Connolly, who supported Rebecca Long-Bailey and Richard Burgon for the Labour leadership, was set to stand in Almondbury against Conservative councillor Bernard McGuin.
On being elected Labour leader in April Sir Keir Starmer pledged to root out anti-Semitism from the party’s ranks.
The Government announced on March 13 that it was postponing local and mayoral elections until May 2021 due to the coronavirus outbreak.
Prime minister Boris Johnson took the decision as polling day on May 7 would have coincided with the expected peak of the outbreak. Voters can look forward to a bumper “Super Thursday” next year when the country will go to the polls for district, county, metropolitan councils, and police and crime commissioners as well as the mayoral elections in London and West Yorkshire.