Labour readmits councillors after ‘slap on the wrist’ bans for sharing hate posts
TWO LABOUR councillors who were suspended for sharing antisemitic posts and extreme anti-Jewish conspiracy theories have been readmitted after just six months.
The Haringey councillors were placed on administrative suspension in September – a move that prevented them from serving as Labour candidates or standing for the party in elections.
However, in a letter to Haringey’s Labour group on Thursday, council leader Ejiofor Joseph confirmed that Noah Tucker and Preston Tabois had served their suspension and had therefore been “readmitted as members of our Labour group”.
Both men strongly denied any charges of antisemitism.
Mr Tucker was suspended after sharing social media posts last
June that suggested the
US police officers responsible for killing George
Floyd had received training from Israeli lawenforcement officers.
Cllr Tabois’s suspension occurred after it emerged that he had posted an article six years ago highlighting the views of UKIP candidate Anna-Marie Crampton, who stood for election to (below right) Noah Tucker
East Sussex County Council.
Ms Crampton was suspended by UKIP for allegedly posting extreme conspiracy theories on the website ‘Secrets of the Fed’.
She was alleged to have posted online: “Holocaust means a sacrifice by fire. Only the Zionists could sacrifice their own in the gas chambers.” She added: “The Second World War was engineered by the Zionist Jews and financed by the bankers to make the general public all over the world to feel so guilty and outraged by the Holocaust that a treaty would be signed to create the State of Israel as we know it today.”
In a second post, Cllr Tabois said conspiracy theories were useful as “an education tool to understand and relate to how governments are run (and) financed”.
Until his suspension, Cllr Tabois was on the slate for the London Assembly elections, due to be held in May.
Cllr Tucker, also readmitted to Labour this week, claimed at the time of his suspension that he had been the innocent victim of a smear campaign.
He said: “I am an opponent of racism in all its forms, including antisemitism. Social media posts have been collated, including selective editing, seemingly in a malicious attempt to falsely associate me with antisemitism.
“States and organisations which engage politically are legitimately subjects of discussion and criticism.”
Cllr Tucker became a Labour councillor in a byelection in 2016 and was a member of Haringey’s Momentum-led Cabinet until 2019.
In 2016, he posted on Facebook a motion passed by Momentum’s Haringey branch that condemned “summary suspensions” of party members and suggested they were the result of a campaign by the “media, Zionist groups and Israel to undermine the party’s leadership and ‘shut down’ debate on the Middle East”.
In the past, Cllr Tucker has branded the Board of Deputies’ plan to tackle antisemitism within the Labour Party as “beyond ridiculous”.
In 2018, he opposed the decision of Haringey Council to formally adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of antisemitism and caused a storm of protest when he invited ousted Labour member Jackie Walker to address Tottenham Momentum. In February, 2019, he defended former Labour MP Chris Williamson who insisted Labour had been “too apologetic” about antisemitism.
In a leaked recording published by Red Road in 2019, Cllr Tucker calls Williamson “one of our best and most honest and loyal MPs” who had been suspended for “the crime of speaking the truth”. Cllr Tucker was also criticised by local Labour MP David Lammy, who is now Shadow Justice Secretary, for suggesting the Tottenham Constituency Labour Party drop its “zero-tolerance position” on antisemitism. Former Minister Ian Austin, who quit Labour in 2019 to shine a spotlight on its antisemitism crisis, said: “A six-month suspension amounts to little more than a slap on the wrist, given Cllr Tucker’s track record and Cllr Tabois’ decision to share an extremely offensive antisemitic conspiracy online.” Labour has been contacted for comment.