Co-chair of Momentum previously claimed former Labour MP Luciana Berger was “disingenuous” about antisemitism in the Party and helped further “right-wing extremism”
The co-Chair of the pro-Corbyn pressure group Momentum is alleged to have previously claimed that the former Labour Party MP, Luciana Berger, was “disingenuous” about antisemitism in the Party.
In a message on Facebook, Gaya Sriskanthan responded to an interview in which Ms Berger revealed that six people had been convicted of antisemitic hate crimes against her, by saying that Ms Berger “disingenuously conflats the increase in antisemitism across the country (and Europe) with the Labour Party.”
She went on to insist that “Labour has nothing to do with the broader trend, which is in fact being driven by the rise of the far-right. The best reemdy for the far-right and the racism that comes along with it, is a strong united Left. Therefore the actions of the ‘Independent Group’ [which Ms Berger had helped to launch following her departure from Labour] actually further right-wing extremism.”
The comments allegedly appeared on the Labour International Left Alliance Facebook group in March 2019.
Ms Berger was hounded out of the Labour Party due to antisemitism. Her departure from the Party followed years of harassment abuse and death threats from far-left Party activists, particularly those who supported Jeremy Corbyn.
It is understood that a complaint has been submitted to the Labour in respect of Ms Sriskanthan’s remarks. She was elected co-Chair of Momentum last year.
A spokesman for the Labour Party said: “The Labour Party takes all complaints of antisemitism extremely seriously and they are fully investigated in line with our rules and procedures, and any appropriate disciplinary action is taken.”
Earlier this year, Mr Corbyn himself also asserted that “Luciana was not hounded out of the Party; she unfortunately decided to resign from the Party”, despite Ms Berger being one of a number of MPs who quit the Labour Party in protest at its institutional antisemitism.
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.
