Councillor ‘should quit after online rant’
The leader of Renfrewshire Council has called on Labour man Jim Sheridan to resign from the local authority following claims that he posted an anti-Semitic rant online.
The Labour Party has suspended the 65- yearold former MP following allegations he wrote that he had lost ‘ respect’ and ‘empathy’ for the Jewish community.
Now SNP council leader Ian Nicolson has urged Councillor Sheridan to quit over the furore, saying his thinking belongs in the “dark ages”.
He said: “When I first saw the comments I couldn’t believe what he was saying.
“To smear an entire community both past and present, to say he has lost ‘all empathy’ for them is utterly deplorable.
“This has cast a dark shadow over everyone who works hard to make Renfrewshire a great place to live and work.
“We are an inclusive community and we distance ourselves completely from his comments.
“I welcome the Labour party’s swift action on this and would urge Councillor Sheridan to resign from the council. I fail to see how he can fulfil his oath to ‘represent all his constituents ‘regardless of their religious and political beliefs’.
“On a personal point, my family are not unique, they have different ancestry including German Jewish so his comments are personally abhorrent.”
The Labour Party, which has been engulfed in antiSemitism row for much of the summer, moved quickly to suspended Sheridan and launch a probe over his Facebook comments.
Sheridan, who was an MP for 14 years before losing his seat in 2015, was elected to represent the Houston, Crosslee, and Linwood ward.
He allegedly wrote: “For all my adult life I have had the utmost respect and empathy for the Jewish community and their historic suffering.
“No longer, due to what they and their Blairite plotters are doing to my party and the long-suffering people of Britain who need a radical Labour government.”
A spokesman for the Labour Party’s Renfrewshire North and West Constituency backed the investigation.
He said: “We fully condemn the anti-Semitic comments expressed by Jim Sheridan, and it’s right that he is subject to a full investigation by the Labour Party.
“The views expressed by Jim Sheridan in no way reflect the views of the members of the Labour Party in the Renfrewshire North and West Constituency.
“These comments are in direct conflict with the Labour Party’s values of anti- racism, equality and solidarity. As a party, we are committed to tackling racism, prejudice and discrimination in all its forms.”