Pro-Palestine Corbynite on panel that let Ken off hook
THE panel of three Labour members which decided not to expel Ken Livingstone from the party for his comments about Hitler included a hard-Left Corbynite ‘obsessed’ with Palestine.
Russell Cartwright, who sits on Labour’s national constitutional committee, appears to have edited a section on a website which included articles promoting a boycott of Israel.
One of the pieces posted on the Scoop. it! site by someone with his name claimed Israel was guilty of apartheid, while another said it was discriminating against African immigrants.
Mr Cartwright, 66, was one of three senior Labour figures who decided merely to suspend Mr Livingstone for a year over his controversial comments claiming that Hitler had supported Zionism in the 1930s. He is also treasurer of hard-Left group the Campaign for Labour Party Democracy and in 2010 supported Diane Abbott’s campaign to be Labour leader.
Yesterday pressure to expel Mr Livingstone from the party
‘Shocked at the leniency’
continued to grow as a shadow Cabinet member told Radio 4’s Today programme she was sickened by his failure to recognise the trauma he has caused to the Jewish community.
Education spokesman Angela Rayner said she was shocked at the leniency of the sanction handed to the former London mayor by the disciplinary panel which found he had brought the party into disrepute.
Mr Cartwright is a parliamentary assistant to Left-wing MP Kelvin Hopkins, one of those who nominated Jeremy Corbyn as Labour leader.
The Jewish Chronicle reported that Mr Cartwright edited a section on Palestine on the content-sharing website Scoop.it! in 2014. One article he posted was entitled ‘On boycott, divestment and sanctions and singling out Israel’s apartheid’. A source told the paper he seemed to have been ‘quite obsessed with the issue of Palestine’.
The source said: ‘It is clear he has very strong pro-Palestinian sympathies. One would think you would have to declare any interest before ruling on an issue such as Mr Livingstone’s claims about Zionism and Hitler.’ Mr Cartwright did not return calls requesting a comment last night.
During the disciplinary meetsanction ing Mr Cartwright reportedly claimed the hearing itself ‘brought Labour into disrepute’, the Jewish Chronicle reported.
He received some support for his views from Brenda Warrington, the Unite representative who was also on the panel, the paper said. The final member, Rose Burley, was said to have been the sole voice calling for Mr Livingstone’s expulsion.
More than 100 Labour MPs have signed a letter stating the on Mr Livingstone was a ‘betrayal’ of Labour values.
Labour’s national executive committee is to investigate the former mayor’s behaviour since the ruling was made. Mr Livingstone insists he had simply been telling the truth.
Mr Corbyn suggested yesterday that the issue was a distraction from forthcoming local elections but would not say if he thought Mr Livingstone should be expelled.