The race to become the next general secretary of the Labour Party was hit by a row last night after the favourite for the post was backed by party activists who have been accused of anti-Semitism.
Jennie Formby, the frontrunner to succeed moderate Iain McNicol as the powerful figure who controls the party’s purse-strings and membership, is being supported by Labour Against the Witch-hunt (LAW), which wants to end the party’s investigations into the issue.
Ms Formby was herself at the centre of an anti-Semitism row two years ago when she questioned the suitability of senior peer Baroness Royall to lead an investigation into claims of anti-Semitism among Labour-supporting students – objecting on the grounds that she had previously visited Israel with the Labour Party’s Friends of Israel.
Jennie Formby, the frontrunner to succeed moderate Iain McNicol as the powerful figure who controls the party’s purse-strings and membership, is being supported by Labour Against the Witch-hunt (LAW), which wants to end the party’s investigations into the issue
Ms Formby, South-East England regional secretary for the Unite union, has also been accused of employing a woman suspended from the Labour Party for saying Jews had ‘big noses’. Former leader of the National Union of Teachers Christine Blower is now the only rival to Ms Formby, the preferred candidate of Jeremy Corbyn’s inner circle and clear favourite for the job.
Her campaign attracted controversy last night because the LAW group, chaired by Jackie Walker of the hard-Left group Momentum, has hailed her as the ‘best choice’ to take over from Mr McNicol.
It singled out her backing for the rights of Palestinian people, and said: ‘We hope that her tenure would mark the beginning of the end of the witch-hunt, which has caused such disunity in the party.’
Ms Formby was herself at the centre of an anti-Semitism row two years ago when she questioned the suitability of senior peer Baroness Royall to lead an investigation into claims of anti-Semitism among Labour-supporting students – objecting on the grounds that she had previously visited Israel with the Labour Party’s Friends of Israel
However, critics point out that Ms Walker was in the past suspended from Labour – and ousted as Momentum’s vice-chair – for remarks which included referring to Jewish people as ‘financiers of the sugar and slave trade’. She was later reinstated.
Last night, a Unite spokeswoman insisted Ms Formby ‘had not sought support from anyone’. She added that Ms Formby ‘believes all allegations of anti-Semitism should be properly investigated and disciplinary action taken where a case is upheld’. Ms Formby also faced claims she had employed Vicki Kirby last year in Unite’s South-East region despite Ms Kirby having been suspended from Labour in 2014 over a series of anti-Semitic Twitter posts.
Unite said Miss Kirby had done some ‘temporary organising work’ for the union but had never been employed by the organisation. It also emerged yesterday that Ms Formby went to the same school later attended by Samantha Cameron – the now private St Helen and St Katharine in Abingdon. But Unite insisted that Naval officer’s daughter Ms Formby had a ‘free place’ at the school, adding: ‘It was not a private school, which it is now.’