Labour reportedly took ten days to start an investigation over Amanda Bishop’s call for members to march on her local synagogue
The Labour Party reportedly took ten days to launch an investigation into a Party member, Amanda Bishop, who called for fellow activists to “march” on her local synagogue.
Ms Bishop wrote in the Brighton and Hove Labour Party Facebook forum that: “We can’t allow this to go on. We need to march about this on the Synagogue in Hove, all of us members in Brighton.” Her call for direct action against the synagogue was in response to the suspension of Alexandrina Braithwaite, from the Brighton and Hove Labour branch, for sharing allegedly antisemitic posts on social media, which Ms Bishop felt was “bulls***”.
The Telegraph reported that Labour was forced to suspend Ms Braithwaite, who was also a council candidate in the upcoming elections, after the newspaper revealed that she had posted a web of online Rothschild and Israel conspiracy theories.
After Ms Bishop’s comments were uncovered, Labour sources reportedly confirmed that she had been suspended pending an investigation.
However, according to PoliticsHome, a local Party member reported the comments to Labour’s Compliance Unit on 16th April. On 25th April, the member emailed the Party again asking why no action had yet been taken, copying in General Secretary Jennie Formby. The following day, the complainer reportedly received an e-mail from Ms Formby’s office informing them that the case had been passed to the Compliance Unit “as a matter of urgency.”
PoliticsHome reports that Brighton and Hove Council’s community safety team was also informed of the comments which led to increased security outside local synagogues during Passover.
The Equality and Human Rights Commission has begun pre-enforcement proceedings against the Labour Party following a formal referral and detailed legal representations from Campaign Against Antisemitism, which is the complainant. The pre-enforcement proceedings are a precursor to opening a full statutory investigation.
In recent months, eleven MPs have resigned from the Labour Party over antisemitism, along with numerous councillors and members.
Over 50,000 people have now signed our petition denouncing Jeremy Corbyn as an antisemite and declaring him “unfit to hold any public office.”