Willsman blames Watson in second recorded rant
A SHAMED senior Labour official has tried to blame deputy leader Tom Watson’s office for leaking to the JC a recording of a speech in which he ranted that Jewish people were “Trump fanatics”.
In a new recording obtained by the JC, Pete Willsman makes the incendiary claim about Mr Watson as he addresses a meeting of the South Staffordshire Labour Party.
In Mr Willsman’s original rant, which took place at a meeting of the party’s National Executive Committee in July, he said 68 UK rabbis were wrong to claim antisemitism was “widespread” in the party.
He also said he was “not going to be lectured to” by Jewish people, who he said were “Trump fanatics and all the rest of it... making up duff information without any evidence at all”.
In the South Staffordshire recording, Mr Willsman speculates about who was responsible for making the recording.
“Someone recording it — I think I probably know who it was. I think it was probably Tom Watson’s office, probably… but never prove it,” he told the recent meeting.
The JC attempted to contact Mr Watson’s office on Monday but had received no response as this story went live.
Mr Willsman then calls allegations of widespread antisemitism within Labour: “Crazy — absolutely crazy.”
Mr Willsman — who was re-elected onto the NEC in September despite the outcry over his July rant — can also be heard suggesting “no-one has produced the evidence” of “widespread and severe” Jew-hate.
This claim was made in a letter to the Guardian signed by 68 rabbis from across the Jewish community.
They included Rabbi Harvey Belovski, vice-chair of the United Synagogue’s rabbinical council, and Rabbis Laura Janner-Klausner, Danny Rich and Jonathan Wittenberg, leaders of the Reform, Liberal and Masorti movements.
Mr Willsman says in the latest recording that he is “very angry” over the debate “about this antisemitism business”.
He says: “I read this letter … it was from 68 rabbis. I couldn’t care a less whether it was 68 rabbis, archbishops, you know, Jehovah Witnesses or what.
“What they said was that in the Labour Party antisemitism was ‘widespread and severe’. Right, when I went to secondary high school I was taught you had to provide evidence when you make statements.”
Boasting about his 37-year stint on Labour’s NEC, Mr Willsman sings the praises of Mr Corbyn: “I’ve known him 41 years… Jeremy hasn’t changed one iota since I first met him. Jeremy has never told a lie. He can’t tell a lie.”
Allegations of Jew-hate in Labour ‘absolutely crazy’