Labourofficial dumpedover hate tweets
LABOUR SUSPENDED a former election candidate this week after MPs, party supporters and Jewish groups reacted with fury to the news that she had been selected for a key role despite a history of antisemitic tweets.
Vicki Kirby had originally been warned about her future conduct two years ago after a series of messages claiming Hitler might be the “Zionist God”, s u g g e s t i n g Daesh should attack Israel, a n d t h a t Jews had “big Suspended: Vicki Kirby noses”, were posted on her Twitter account.
But the revelation on Monday that she had been selected as the vice-chair of Woking Labour Party’s executive committee last month led to outrage. The party initially said that her 2014 suspension had dealt with the matter, but following increased pressure and the threat of a police investigation, Ms Kirby was suspended on Tuesday.
Ilford North MP Wes Streeting said he was “ashamed” by the episode, while veteran Jewish MP Louise Ellman said i t was “i n e x p l i - cable” that her party had taken so long to act.
MsKirbywasthe second party mem- Sadiq Khan, Labour’s candidate for London mayor, meets Rabbi Osher Schapiro, founder of the Charedi charity Kol Boniach, during a visit to the strictly Orthodox community in Stamford Hill, north London, this week ber to face action over antisemitism claims in a week, following Gerry Downing, who was thrown out last Wednesday. He appeared to question aspects of the Holocaust and his website published articles including one referring to “the Jewish Question”.
Labour peer Baroness Royall is currently carrying out an investigation into allegations of antisemitism among Labour-supporting students at a number of prominent universities, including Oxford. The JC understands the cases of Mr Downing and Ms Kirby will be treated separately.
Due to stand in Woking in last year’s general election, Ms Kirby was dumped as a candidate following the tweets. One message claimed: “We invented Israel when saving them from Hitler, who now seems to be their teacher.”
In another post she said she would teach her children “how evil Israel is”, before going on to ask why Islamic State forces were “not attacking the real oppressors, Israel?”.
In a tweet from August 2014, a message from the account read: “Point abt Jews is that they OCCUPY palestine. Used to live together, now slaughter the oppressed.”
On Tuesday, Kevin McKeever, a Labour police and crime commissioner candidate, complained to Surrey Police, which covers Woking, about the comments, claiming that they may have breached race relations and public order laws.
Police confirmed that they had received the complaint and taken a “fresh look at it”this week, but said they would be taking no action, having already investigated Ms Kirby’s comments when they were originally made in 2014. At the time, the Crown Prosecution Service advised them that the tweets did not amount to inciting racial hatred.
It is understood that the decision to suspend Ms Kirby was taken by Iain McNichol, the Labour general secretary, following a complaint from Tal Ofer, a Jewish party supporter and former local council candidate.
Mr Streeting said his party had been “woeful in tackling antisemitism within our own ranks”.
“T h e L a b o u r P a r t y l o o k s a p a t h e t i c a b o u t antisemitism,” he wrote on Facebook. “Jewish Labour members have cut up their membership cards. They’re not alone. Non-Jews have also torn up their m e m b e r s h i p cards in protest, Kevin McKeever complained to the police while others of us are not prepared to remain silent while antisemitism is allowed to fester within our party.”
Mr Streeting said he did not blame party leader Jeremy Corbyn, but that the national executive committee “has serious questions to answer”.
Ms Ellman raised her concerns at Monday evening’s meeting of the Parliamentary Labour Party (PLP).
She said Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell had given his assurance that he was “strongly against antisemitism”, but Ms Ellman said she was now “looking for action” from the party.
The Jewish Labour Movement said it welcomed Ms Kirby’s suspension and urged Jewish Labour activists to remain in the party.
Speaking at a major conference on tackling antisemitism in Berlin, Labour’s Shadow Mental Health Minister Luciana Berger warned that “serious damage” could be done within political parties when “attitudes can be allowed to fester and develop”.
She added: “Too many of us will be aware of elements from within our political groupings from people whose values we’re supposed to share, who do harbour antisemitic or other racist sentiments, and we need to stamp it out.”
Labour’s London mayor candidate, Sadiq Khan, addressed the issue during a tour of Stamford Hill’s strictly Orthodox community on Wednesday.
He said: “It’s heart-breaking to think we are in 2016 and there are problems of antisemitism within Labour. “I’m disgusted at the problems. I never imagined racism would be alive and kicking in my party.”
Mr Khan called for a “very clear message” to be sent “from the top” of the party. It was “hardly surprising that Jewish people are asking the question whether the party is on their side,” he said. As mayor of London he pledged he would take “t o u g h a c t i o n ” a g a i n s t a n t i - semitism.