Labour reportedly deselects Nasreen Khan and Billy Wells following investigations into antisemitic comments

The Labour Party has reportedly barred Nasreen Khan and Billy Wells from standing as councillors, following investigations into antisemitic comments.

Ms Khan has reportedly been barred from seeking office for the Labour Party following her comments that Hitler was not the “bad guy” and Jews are “playing victims”. She was shortlisted as one of two people to be selected as a Labour candidate for a safe council seat in Bradford. The Party is reported to have re-interviewed her after her remarks attracted a national furore and she was removed from the panel of two potential candidates because “Labour condemns all antisemitism in the strongest possible terms.” However the original interviewers were aware of Ms Khan’s antisemitic comments and simply chose to accept her previous apology for them. It seems that she has been interviewed again now about the same comments, but this time the apology was not deemed acceptable.

Ms Khan previously wrote on Facebook: “It’s such a shame that the history teachers in our school never taught us this but they are the first to start brainwashing us and our children into thinking the bad guy was Hitler. What have the Jews done good in this world??” When another user remonstrated with her, she retorted: “No, I’m not a Nazi, I’m an ordinary British Muslim that had an opinion and put it across. We have worse people than Hitler in this world now.” As her comments drew further opprobrium, she wrote: “Stop beating a dead horse. The Jews have reaped the rewards of playing victims. Enough is enough!!”

Meanwhile, the Labour Party has also reportedly withdrawn its backing f0r council candidate Billy Wells over a series of posts about “Zionists” controlling politics and the media.

Mr Wells had previously claimed: “…it’s the super rich families of the Zionist lobby that control the world. Our world leaders sell their souls for greed and do the bidding of Israel. They see the evil but their love for wealth makes them turn a blind eye.” He also asked on Twitter: “How much money and how much power is too much? The greed of the Rothschild family knows no bounds”. He made several claims that the media is controlled by the “Israeli lobby”, in one instance claiming: “The Zionist Lobby would not allow our puppet government and its media lapdogs to show the truth.”

Whilst we welcome the fact that neither Ms Khan nor Mr Wells are now being considered as candidates, the Labour Party should have vetted Mr Wells more carefully (this is hardly their first time), and in Ms Khan’s case they should have decided that antisemitism was a red line for them and not shortlisted her in the first place, rather than shortlisting her and only dropping her following severe criticism.