Now Labour ‘censors’ anti-Semitism courses
Party ‘tried to ban references to Red Ken’s Hitler outburst’
ANTI-SEMITISM training could be scrapped at this year’s Labour conference after the party was accused of trying to ‘censor’ sessions.
The Jewish Labour Movement said it will no longer run courses at the event after attempts to intervene by the leadership, according to reports.
It wrote a letter complaining senior figures had tried to remove mentions of Ken Livingstone and Naz Shah, both suspended over alleged anti-Semitic comments. In another day of crisis for Labour: Shadow chancellor John McDonnell was said to have fallen out with Jeremy Corbyn over his handling of the crisis.
Former MP Jim Sheridan was suspended after allegedly claiming ‘the Jewish community’ was working with ‘Blairite plotters’ to undermine the leadership.
Corbyn-loyalist MP Chris Williamson was ‘spoken to’ by the chief whip after he ‘dis- missed or belittled’ the anti-Semitism issue, something Mr Corbyn has forbidden.
Corbyn-supporting paper The Word carried a shocking front page with a picture of Labour MP Dame Margaret Hodge, who is Jewish, and the words ‘the enemy within’.
Yesterday, it emerged that the Jewish Labour Movement – Labour’s only affiliated Jewish group – had pulled out of offering training to prevent anti-Semitism at the conference in Liverpool next month.
It accused party leaders of trying to ‘censor’ the sessions, which it has held for the past two conferences, the Independent reported. The JLM accused the leadership of requesting the omission of references to high-profile cases like that of Mr Livingstone, who claimed Hitler had supported Zionism.
Mention of MP Naz Shah, suspended after appearing to endorse a suggestion that Israelis be deported to the US, was also to be forbidden, the group said.
In a letter to Labour general secretary Jennie Formby, JLM chairman Ivor Caplin said that the party had been acting ‘in a manner to deliberately undermine’ the group and ‘add to further tension’. He wrote: ‘You may also be aware that we have withdrawn from offering to deliver the antisemitism awareness module... after some of its content was censored.
‘We presume this was to make the module compliant with the antiSemitism code of conduct that neither JLM or the Jewish community have any confidence in.’
It comes amid growing turmoil over Mr Corbyn’s refusal to accept the full International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance definition of anti-Semitism. Yesterday, Mr Corbyn and Mr McDonnell were reported to be barely speaking due to the leader’s handling of the issue. Last week, Mr McDonnell was forced to deny he had considered resigning over the way Mr Corbyn’s office bungled the probe into Dame Margaret after she confronted him over anti-Semitism.
This weekend, it emerged that former MP Jim Sheridan was suspended from Labour after allegedly claiming on social media that ‘the Jewish community’ was working with ‘Blairite plotters’ to undermine the leadership. The firebrand ex-MP, who lost his seat in 2015 and is now a councillor, is understood to have said he had lost ‘respect and empathy’ for the Jewish community over the row.
Yesterday, it emerged that the chief whip had spoken to Mr Williamson – Mr Corbyn’s chief defender – for allegedly ‘belittling’ the issue of anti-Semitism. A Labour member posted a letter online that she had received from Labour’s complaints team after formally objecting to the Labour MP’s comments. It said: ‘This matter was passed to the chief whip, who has spoken to Mr Williamson reminding him of the conduct expected of him.’
Yesterday’s front page by Corbynista newspaper The Word also pictures Tom Watson, John Woodcock, John Mann, Tony Blair and Chuka Umunna above the words: ‘These are the people who do not want a Labour government.’
Labour denied any censorship and said it simply requested a ‘discussion’ on training, as in previous years. A source told the Independent: ‘JLM were invited to deliver training but they declined.’
‘Belittling the issue’