Labour activist defiant over Jewish ‘slur’

A LABOUR activist suspended in an anti-Semitism row yesterday refused to apologise despite anger from Jewish groups.

Jackie Walker, a senior figure in the pro-Corbyn group Momentum, had said online “Jews were the chief financiers of the slave trade”. She was reinstated last week after an internal investigation and welcomed the end of her “living nightmare”.

The Jewish Labour Movement, which is affiliated to the party, attacked the decision and claimed Ms Walker had made an “anti-Semitic slur” and “showed no contrition”.

Speaking on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme yesterday, she refused to apologise and added: “I don’t have an apology to make. I’m saddened if I’ve upset people, but sometimes when we’re talking in political speech we upset people, and these issues are very upsetting.

“The issues about migration and refugees, and of what happened in the holocausts and not just the Jewish Holocaust, the African holocaust and the other genocides that there have been. All I’m saying is that every single death of every single person no matter what their race, no matter what their culture, is an awful thing.”

She added: “No one genocide, no one holocaust is in my opinion worse than any other. I’m an internationalist – that’s what it means to be an internationalist.”

Michael Dugher, the former shadow cabinet minister, recently warned that Labour would be judged by how seriously it took claims of anti-Semitism. After Ms Walker was readmitted, the MP said: “Actions speak louder than words. We will need a full and proper explanation as to why.”