Labour councillor who chanted “From the River to the Sea” has whip removed and Jeremy Corbyn’s former legal head deselected, but elsewhere local Labour group passes motion praising Ken Loach
A Labour Party councillor who chanted “From the River to the Sea” at a rally and called a former Jewish Labour MP a “hideous traitor” has reportedly had the whip removed.
Sam Gorst, a councillor in Liverpool, is reportedly no longer a member of the local Labour Group and will sit as an independent. Cllr Gorst was filmed earlier this year marching alongside Jeremy Corbyn and chanting “From the River to the Sea, Palestine will be free”. The chant only makes sense as a call for the destruction of the world’s only Jewish state – and its replacement with a State of Palestine – and is thus an attempt to deny Jews, uniquely, the right to self-determination, which is a breach of the International Definition of Antisemitism. The rally was addressed by Mr Corbyn and former Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell, and was endorsed by Labour MPs Paula Barker, and Kim Johnson.
Labour Against Antisemitism has also previously claimed that Cllr Gorst was involved in the now-proscribed Labour fringe groups, Labour Against the Witchhunt and Labour in Exile Network.
Cllr Gorst, who is reported to have been suspended from the Labour Party for twelve months in August 2020, claimed that Mr Corbyn was a victim of a “smear campaign”, described the Jewish Labour MP Luciana Berger as a “hideous traitor” when she declared her intention to run for Merseyside Mayor in 2016, and called another Jewish Labour MP, Dame Louise Ellman, a “disgrace” when she quit the Party in 2019 over antisemitism.
Cllr Gorst reportedly said that he is “appealing this injustice.”
In London, the Labour Party’s former Director Governance and Legal under Mr Corbyn’s leadership has been deselected as a candidate by the Party in advance of next year’s local elections.
Thomas Gardiner, a councillor in Camden who was referenced repeatedly in the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC)’s report into Labour antisemitism, which followed an investigation in which Campaign Against Antisemitism was the complainant, was involved in overseeing the Party’s catastrophic complaints process. He became known for his decision that a meme showing an alien crustacean with a Star of David emblazoned on its back sucking the life out of the Statue of Liberty was somehow not antisemitic.
It is understood that Mr Gardiner launched an appeal against the deselection, but that the decision was upheld.
Elsewhere in London, the Hornsey and Wood Green Constituency Labour Party has come under fire for approving a motion that praises the outspoken filmmaker and expelled Labour member Ken Loach. The motion also called for local public screenings of his films. The motion was reportedly proposed by local member and television actress Margot Leicester.
A second motion claimed that Labour under the leadership of Sir Keir Starmer had become a “hostile environment” as a result of the “expulsions of prominent socialists.”
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.
Campaign Against Antisemitism has launched a new weekly podcast. New episodes of Podcast Against Antisemitism are available every Thursday and can be streamed here or downloaded wherever you get your podcasts.
