Labour conference fringe events to feature individuals suspended or expelled from Party over antisemitism
Next week’s Labour Party Conference Fringe in Brighton includes events hosted by groups that claim that the Party’s antisemitism crisis is a smear and featuring speakers who have been suspended or expelled from the Party over antisemitism.
On 24th September at 19:00, Labour Against the Witchhunt, a group that was set up to protest the expulsion of Labour members for alleged antisemitism and that opposes “the false antisemitism smear”, is hosting a public meeting with Ken Livingstone and Asa Winstanley.
Mr Livingstone was suspended from the Labour Party over antisemitism and eventually resigned from the Party in 2018 during a two-year investigative process that was never concluded. He went on to dismiss Labour’s antisemitism crisis as “lies and smears” manufactured by an “elite” wishing to protect their “tax-dodging in the Cayman Islands”. Mr Winstanley, meanwhile, has called the Jewish Labour Movement an “Israeli Embassy proxy” and was reportedly suspended from Labour in March, pending an investigation.
The Labour Representation Committee, a pro-Corbyn pressure group which has a long history of belittling claims of antisemitism and publishing extremely disturbing articles, is reportedly hosting an event with Chris Williamson MP and Jackie Walker. The president of the organisation is the Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer, John McDonnell.
Mr Williamson, was suspended from Labour and then readmitted, only to be resuspended following a public outcry after claiming that Labour has been “too apologetic” over antisemitism.
Ms Walker, a former vice-chair of Momentum and one of those exemplifying the institutionalisation of antisemitism in the Labour Party, was repeatedly suspended by Labour and finally expelled earlier this year. She has persistently claimed that complaints of antisemitism are part of a plot to destabilise the leadership of Jeremy Corbyn and has rejected the International Definition of Antisemitism.
Jewish Voice for Labour, a sham organisation which, by the admission of its chair, was founded in order “to tackle allegations of antisemitism in the Labour Party”, is also hosting an event on Israel featuring highly controversial speakers.
That the Labour Party continues to attract these figures and their following shows that its failure to address antisemitism is registered not only by those fighting antisemitism but also by those instigating and defending it.
On 28th May, the Equality and Human Rights Commission launched a full statutory investigation following a formal referral and detailed legal representations from Campaign Against Antisemitism, which is the complainant.
In recent months, twelve MPs and three peers have resigned from the Labour Party over antisemitism, along with a large number of MEPs, councillors and members.
Over 55,000 people have now signed our petition denouncing Jeremy Corbyn as an antisemite and declaring him “unfit to hold any public office.”
