Police investigate anti-Semitic trolls backing Red Len
LABOUR was plunged into a fresh antiSemitism row last night as police launched an investigation into abuse allegedly sent by backers of union baron ‘Red’ Len McCluskey.
A Twitter account supporting the ally of Jeremy Corbyn targeted a rival with a smear campaign accusing him of having ‘shadowy backers’ in a ‘Jewish Mafia’.
The messages sent to Gerard Coyne, who is challenging Mr McCluskey for the leadership of the Unite union, are now being investigated by police.
It comes as Labour faces criticism for failing to expel former London mayor Ken Livingstone for repeatedly claiming that Adolf Hitler supported Zionism.
Mr Coyne, who is not Jewish, received the sinister messages after he did an interview with The Jewish Chronicle.
In it, he said Mr McCluskey has spent too much time concentrating on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict when ‘for many of our members it is not something at the forefront of their minds’.
An apparent supporter of Mr McCluskey, using the Twitter name @1UnionBloke, sent Mr Coyne a slew of offensive messages on the social network.
One showed a picture of Mr Coyne next to a man with the Star of David on his body and brandishing a gun.
The caption read: ‘Be warned @gerard_coyne has backing now!! Jewish Mafia.’
Other messages from the account included suggestions that Mr Coyne was pandering to the Jewish community in his leadership campaign. One tweet said: ‘His anti anybody who isn’t Jewish is exposed. @ gerard_coyne also reveals his shadowy backers. So @ UniteforLen.’
Another Twitter post from a different account claimed Mr Coyne was ‘cosying up to powerful Jewish conservative supporters of Zionism and ready to sell his soul’.
Mr McCluskey’s campaign condemned the messages but the politics website Guido Fawkes claimed followers of the @1UnionBloke account, which has been shut down, included Jennie Formby, a regional leader of Unite who is the mother of Mr McCluskey’s love child.
Last year, Mr McCluskey insisted there ‘was no crisis of anti-Semitism in the Labour Party’ and said the row had been manipulated for ‘political aims’.
Mr Livingstone was suspended from Labour this week over his Zionism remarks but yesterday Mr Coyne joined growing calls for him to be expelled.
He said: ‘Mr Livingstone’s comments and total lack of contrition are grotesque.
‘The leadership of Unite seems to think its role in the Labour Party is to defend the indefensible.
‘There is a troubling trend of racism within the Labour movement at the moment. We need to stamp this out.’
A spokesman for Mr McCluskey’s campaign said: ‘Len has always been clear that he wants his supporters to support his positive, progressive agenda, which celebrates the inclusive values of our labour movement. He does not want or condone any engagement by them in online abuse.’
He added: ‘Unite has also made it clear that any member who has made antiSemitic comments will face disciplinary action.’