Stop Funding Hate accused of “militant prejudice” over strategic advisor defending inflammatory tweets

Stop Funding Hate (SFH), a campaign that encourages advertisers to boycott media whom they consider hateful, has been accused of “militant prejudice” after it was revealed by the JC that one of their strategic advisors had defended inflammatory tweets made by others.

Stu Moran, the CEO of Web Foundry, a consultancy that provides logistical and strategic support for SFH, took to Twitter in an attempt to justify tweets that promoted hate from both Labour MP Rebecca Long-Bailey and Kerry-Anne Mendoza, the editor of The Canary,  who has a history of antisemitic comments and whose website is under investigation by the Government’s Independent Advisor on Antisemitism.

After Ms Long-Bailey was removed from the Shadow Cabinet by Sir Keir Starmer for sharing an article that promulgated an antisemitic conspiracy theory concerning the death of George Floyd, Mr Moran tweeted: “How have we ended up with criticism of the Israeli state – openly involved in US police training it seems – being branded antisemitic @Keir_Starmer?”

Associating the Jewish state with the murder of George Floyd is an antisemitic trope.

Mr Moran also defended Ms Mendoza after she received backlash for equating Brexit with Nazism by tweeting: “Get Brexit done; Build, build, build; Jobs, jobs, jobs; Arbeit macht frei.” He wrote: “Yes, I get that it’s not good but compared to things I’ve seen in almost every tabloid, the Times, Telegraph and even the BBC that cause hate crime on our streets a daily basis – I’d argue that tweet won’t – I’m struggling to understand the size of the furore against the Canary?”

Sir John Hayes MP said: “As is so often the case, the view of virtue amongst these groups and individuals is warped by militant prejudice. On both the hard left and hard right this cancerous preoccupation is rife and it’s time this cancer was cut out and the people involved cut off from civilised society.”

A spokesperson for Campaign Against Antisemitism said: “For Stop Funding Hate to collaborate with people making these sorts of comments is the height of hypocrisy. They should stop funding the hate spread by their own contractor.

“Sadly this seems to be yet another case of an extreme far-left worldview becoming entrenched amongst those who claim the mantle of campaigners against hatred. It is shameful.”