Hope Not Hate rescinds award to artist after he appeared to downplay Labour antisemitism and was pictured with disgraced former MP Chris Williamson
The advocacy group Hope Not Hate has rescinded an award to an artist after he appeared to downplay antisemitism in the Labour Party and was pictured with the disgraced former MP Chris Williamson.
Singer Joe Solo was one of three nominees selected by a public vote to win a Hope Hero award for his anti-poverty project. The award was a joint project of Hope Not Hate and the trade union Community.
However, it since emerged that in September 2018 and February 2019 Mr Solo posted messages of solidarity with Mr Williamson on social media.
He also tweeted: “I don’t join in with the Corbyn/antisemitism row because I believe it is being used a political tool to enable much darker forces. So I believe Mr Corbyn is antisemitic? No, of course not. And nor do they…” The tweet ended with a link.
In a joint statement, Hope Not Hate and Community said: “Since the announcement of the award it has been brought to our attention that in 2018 and 2019 Joe Solo published several social media posts that we deem unacceptable.
“Hope Not Hate have long been clear that antisemitism in the Labour Party has been a major problem and vocal in our condemnation of Chris Williamson. One of the major mistakes made by the Labour Party was making excuses instead of acting when faced with antisemitism. We will not make that same mistake.
“As such we have decided to withdraw the award from Joe Solo and we have reached out to him to offer training on the issue of antisemitism and explain why we found the tweet unacceptable.”
The statement also praised Mr Solo’s work, and ended with an apology: “We also apologise unreservedly to our friends and comrades who have been hurt by this situation. We will continue to do more to be allies in the fight against antisemitism.”