Cllr Tasleem Fazal reportedly readmitted to Labour group at Blackburn with Darwen Council despite suggesting that ISIS is a Jewish plot

There are reports that Cllr Tasleem Fazal has been readmitted to the Labour Party group at Blackburn with Darwen Council despite previously suggesting that ISIS is a Jewish plot. According the Council’s website, Cllr Fazal continues to sit as an independent.

Cllr Fazal was suspended from Labour after it was revealed that he had made a video during an anti-Israel protest in 2014 when he called peace protestors “murderers” and during which he was asked by a demonstrator wearing a skullcap: “ISIS – is ISIS Jewish?” From behind the camera, he responded: “Who’s created it? Who’s created it? Do your homework.” The notion that Jews or Israel created the ISIS terrorist organisation is a popular antisemitic trope.

After being suspended, Cllr Fazal sat as an independent, but he also continued to sit on the Council’s select Licencing Committee. Cllr Andy Kay was also suspended from Labour but retained his committee portfolios as an independent.

Blackburn with Darwen Council had as many councillors suspended from the Labour Party over antisemitism claims on its committees as Liberal Democrats.

The Labour Party was found by the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) to have engaged in unlawful discrimination and harassment of Jews. The report followed the EHRC’s investigation of the Labour Party in which Campaign Against Antisemitism was the complainant, submitting hundreds of pages of evidence and legal argument. Sir Keir Starmer called the publication of the report a “day of shame” for the Labour Party.

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.