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Labour seem to be tying themselves up in knots unable to distinguish between anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism.
Courtesy of the Times.
Labour has suspended one of its most senior candidates in May’s local elections after he claimed that “Nazism and Zionism are equally foul”. The Labour councillor, a fireman and former soldier, also reposted content suggesting that Israel should be “relocated into the United States” — the same comments that led to the suspension of the Labour MP Naz Shah in 2016. Sean McCallum, who was selected last week as the party’s candidate to be the elected mayor of Mansfield, posted the remark about Nazism on his personal Facebook page after Ken Livingstone’s suspension in 2016. “All makes perfect sense. I can’t see anything vaguely antisemitic here,” he posted.
Five mayoral contests are to be held at the May elections, making Mr McCallum one of Labour’s most senior candidates. He was suspended within hours of the party being made aware of the posts by The Times. In a statement it said: “The Labour Party takes all complaints of antisemitism extremely seriously and we are committed to challenging and campaigning against it in all its forms. All complaints about antisemitism are fully investigated in line with our rules and procedures and any appropriate disciplinary action is taken.”
Lord Falconer of Thoroton has said he will turn down a request by Labour to investigate its handling of antisemitism if the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) goes ahead with an official inquiry. The former lord chancellor told the Jewish News: “In light of the commission coming in, I think we’ve got to put it on hold, see what the commission is going to do. If they are minded to do an investigation, they will have a range of statutory powers to get documents, emails, WhatsApp messages and witnesses, and they will do an investigation that will be completely independent from the Labour Party.”
Peers have told Jeremy Corbyn that their party is in “crisis” over his “political failure” to fight antisemitism. In a letter to the party leader on behalf of the 185-strong Labour group on the red benches, Lord Harris of Haringey, its chairman, told Mr Corbyn the peers wanted “to put on record our alarm at what is frankly an embarrassing and hugely damaging mess caused by the ongoing failure to remove antisemites from our party”.