Labour member who described concerns over Labour antisemitism as “bourgeois lies and propaganda” expelled from Party

An activist has been expelled from the Labour Party for sending antisemitic messages on social media using the Twitter handle “@CorbynBoy” and minimising the antisemitism crisis engulfing the Party.

Ian Humphries, until recently a member of the East Devon Constituency Labour Party, sent messages accusing the Labour MP Jess Phillips of having taken £1 million from the “Israeli lobby”. He also asked another MP, Luciana Berger, who left the Labour Party over antisemitism, “do you agree in killing all the PALISTINIONS [sic]?” adding, “It’s a simple answer — yes or no? If you don’t reply I will take this as a yes…you agree with Palistine [sic] genocide by the Israeli government.”

Mr Humphries is also alleged to have written that the “BBC is run by the Conservative Party and the Israel lobby” and that “Tories just keep giving away money to the rich, as just to keep Murdoch and the Rothschilds happy [sic].”

Ms Phillips reported that in his messages Mr Humphries said that allegations of antisemitism in the Labour Party were “bourgeois lies and propaganda”. She said that his messages constituted “very clear antisemitism”.

Last year Ms Humphries signed a letter in the Dorset Eye calling on the Labour Party not to adopt the International Definition of Antisemitism.

On 28th May, the Equality and Human Rights Commission launched a full statutory investigation into antisemitism in the Labour Party following a formal referral and detailed legal representations from Campaign Against Antisemitism, which is the complainant.

In recent months, eleven 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.”