Labour councillor who defended Jeremy Corbyn and Jackie Walker to lead Labour’s top disciplinary committee
A Labour councillor who reportedly defended antisemites Jeremy Corbyn and Jackie Walker has been elected to chair the National Constitutional Committee, the Labour Party’s highest disciplinary body.
Emine Ibrahim, a Haringey councillor and member of the board of London Labour Momentum, reportedly posted on Facebook in 2016: “Does anyone on here or in the party think Jeremy [Corbyn] is an antisemite? If they don’t then associating him with antisemitism is a slur on his character and his policies.”
Also in 2016, when asked how she could defend Ms Walker, who had said that “many Jews were the chief financiers of the sugar and slave trade,” Ms Ibrahim is reported to have said: “Because I have met her and spoken to her and so I believe her when she says she is not an antisemite.”
Ms Ibrahim told the JC: “With regard to Jackie Walker, I commented after she had been cleared by the party process of the time. As I had no role in party disciplinary processes at the time and as an ordinary party member, I took at face value that the decision was made based on a thorough investigation and party process.”
She added: “With regard to Jeremy Corbyn, again for the same reasons I have not commented on individual cases. Antisemitism and all forms of discrimination need to be rooted out in all its forms.”
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.
