Former CLP chair Rebecca Massey finally expelled from Labour but apparently not for antisemitism, as another CLP chair also reportedly suspended
A former chair of a Constituency Labour Party (CLP) who has been posting antisemitic tweets for years has finally been expelled from the Labour Party, but not, it appears, for antisemitism.
Rebecca Massey, a former chair of Central Hove, Brunswick and Adelaide CLP, was apparently suspended on 18th May and expelled on 2nd June, a quick turnaround, but years too late. Moreover, according to Ms Massey, her expulsion was because of her support for the disgraced ex-Labour former MP Chris Williamson in his independent bid for Parliament after he was booted from the Labour Party.
Ms Massey has been posting tweets for years that breach the International Definition of Antisemitism, including that “Israel has Tory & Labour parties under control”, backing Ken Livingstone and claiming that the “Israel lobby manufactured the UK Labour Party’s antisemitism crisis”. It is not clear whether these tweets featured in the reasoning for her expulsion.
Elsewhere, in the North Norfolk CLP, it is being reported that the chair has been suspended over antisemitism. A letter sent to Ray Mooney on 2nd June informed him of the suspension after his Facebook account shared articles referring to antisemitic tropes, including references to Rothschilds, equations of Israel and the Nazis and claims that “Israel is trying to silence Corbyn”. He also apparently called the Jewish Labour MP and Corbyn critic, Dame Margaret Hodge MP, “Judas”.
Mr Mooney apparently confirmed the suspension, but then claimed his Facebook had been hacked. He did not resign as chair of the CLP but it is understood that a meeting was called to discuss interim leadership.
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.
