Labour MP promotes article claiming Jeremy Corbyn was brought down by “lies”, “mob politics” and “dark forces”, but then deletes tweet and apologises
A Labour MP promoted an article that claimed that Jeremy Corbyn, the former Leader of the Labour Party, was electorally unsuccessful due to “lie after lie” told about him, “mob politics” and “dark forces”, before deleting the tweet and apologising.
Margaret Greenwood, who is the Shadow Minister for Schools, tweeted that the article was “important reading” before deleting the tweet. It is believed that the deletion was due to pressure from Sir Keir Starmer’s office.
Ms Greenwood subsequently tweeted an apology for her original tweet, writing: “I shared an article by Peter Oborne and David Hearst as I thought it interesting that 2 distinguished journalists would write about how Jeremy Corbyn was undermined by the press when leader of the Labour Party. I understand that some people have found this offensive. I want to be clear I had no intention of causing offence and so have removed the tweet. Wishing everyone a peaceful weekend.”
The article claimed that Mr Corbyn was the victim of a “lynch mob” by the media and acquitted him of charges of antisemitism, faulting him only for “poor judgement”, for example “in joining various internet forums in his years on the backbenches.”
On 28th May 2019, 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 the first release of its Antisemitism in Political Parties research, Campaign Against Antisemitism showed that Labour Party candidates for Parliament in the 2019 general election accounted for 82 percent of all incidents of antisemitic discourse by parliamentary candidates.
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.
I shared an article by Peter Oborne and David Hearst as I thought it interesting that 2 distinguished journalists would write about how Jeremy Corbyn was undermined by the press when leader of the Labour Party. 1 of 2
— Margaret Greenwood MP (@MGreenwoodWW) June 6, 2020
I understand that some people have found this offensive. I want to be clear I had no intention of causing offence and so have removed the tweet. Wishing everyone a peaceful weekend. 2 of 2.
— Margaret Greenwood MP (@MGreenwoodWW) June 6, 2020
