Former Labour MP Lisa Forbes, who liked Facebook post claiming Theresa May has a “Zionist slave master’s agenda”, blames rejected candidate bid on Party “factionalism”
The former Labour Party MP Lisa Forbes, who once liked a Facebook post claiming that Theresa May has a “Zionist slave master’s agenda”, has said that her candidate bid was rejected due to Party “factionalism”.
Ms Forbes’ remarks, reported earlier today, came after she was asked the reason why she thought that Labour were not backing her to become the Party’s Prospective Parliamentary Candidate in Peterborough, her former constituency.
In her response, she said: “I think my crime here is having the audacity to stand in a by-election when Jeremy Corbyn was the leader. Because before that, the party was very supportive of me and my candidacy, but they’re not anymore.
“I’m prepared to stand under Keir Starmer, as I say, I’m not a factional person. But I think other people are.”
However, according to the Party, each candidate was informed why they were not selected.
A Labour spokesperson said that leader Sir Keir Starmer “is committed to ensuring that being a Labour candidate is a mark of quality,” adding: “The Labour leader is determined to stick to his promise to pull antisemitism up by its roots and the public have a right to know that everyone the Labour Party puts forward at election time is of a high standard.”
On or around 11th August 2018, Ms Forbes signed a letter to the National Executive Committee of the Labour Party opposing the adoption of all eleven examples of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance definition of antisemitism into the Labour Party’s code of conduct.
On or around 15th April 2019, Ms Forbes, who was by then Labour’s candidate in the Peterborough by election, ‘liked’ a Facebook post which stated that Theresa May had a “Zionist Slave Masters agenda,” for which she later apologised.
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.
