After Leader of Sandwell Council resigns over antisemitism allegations following CAA pressure, another Labour councillor’s record comes under the spotlight

Another Labour councillor on Sandwell Council has been revealed to have a record of problematic remarks.

Although Cllr John Edwards says on his Twitter biography that he is “allergic to bigots”, he has described accusations of antisemitism as “smears”, called criticism of the disgraced then-Labour MP Chris Williamson a “smear campaign”, described the International Definition of Antisemitism as “unfit for purpose”, implied comparisons of Israeli policy to the Nazis in breach of the Definition by saying to then-Prime Minister David Cameron that “when you leave Auschwitz David Cameron go to Gaza”.

Cllr Edwards has been a Labour councillor for forty years.

Earlier this week, the Leader of Sandwell Council resigned from her post and was suspended by the Labour Party pending investigation, after Campaign Against Antisemitism called for decisive action by the local authority and the Party over her social media history.

On 28th May 2019, the Equality and Human Rights Commission launched a full statutory investigation into antisemitism in the Labour Party following a formal referral and detailed legal representations from Campaign Against Antisemitism, which is the complainant.

In the first release of its Antisemitism in Political Parties research, Campaign Against Antisemitism showed that Labour Party candidates for Parliament in the 2019 general election accounted for 82 percent of all incidents of antisemitic discourse by parliamentary candidates.

Campaign Against Antisemitism’s Antisemitism Barometer 2019 showed that antisemitism on the far-left of British politics has surpassed that of the far-right.

Campaign Against Antisemitism advocates for zero tolerance of antisemitism in public life. To that end we monitor all political parties and strive to ensure that any cases of concern are properly addressed.