Tahir Ali signs up to International Definition of Antisemitism in the presence of the Opposition Chief Whip, leaving Labour’s Grahame Morris as sole sitting MP not to endorse it
Tahir Ali, a new Labour MP, has become the second last of all sitting MPs to sign up to the International Definition of Antisemitism, according to the All Party Group Against Antisemitism, which organised the campaign. But he reportedly only did so in the presence of the Opposition Chief Whip, which suggests the Labour Party may have placed him under significant pressure.
Mr Ali was recently discovered to have been a member of a Facebook group backing Rebecca Long-Bailey for the leadership of the Labour Party – a group replete with antisemitic material.
Mr Ali’s signature means that of all the sitting MPs only Labour’s Grahame Morris has declined to sign the Definition.
Sinn Fein’s seven MPs have also not signed up, but they do not take their seats in Parliament.
Signing up to the Definition is an important first step in tackling antisemitism, however the Definition must now be used and appropriate policies adopted and implemented by all public bodies, local authorities and universities in order to combat anti-Jewish hatred.
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.
