Sir David Garrard (pictured), who has donated around £1.5million to Labour since 2003, has quit the party after claiming it has ‘supported and endorsed the most blatant acts of anti-Semitism’
One of Labour’s biggest private donors has left the party after claiming it has ‘supported and endorsed the most blatant acts of anti-Semitism’.
The latest blow to Jeremy Corbyn’s party came as one of his allies quit a senior leadership post after becoming embroiled in a scandal for defending a Labour member of holocaust denial.
Sir David Garrard, who has supported the party under three leaders before Mr Corbyn and donated around £1.5million since 2003, has decided to leave Labour because the party he supported ‘no longer exists’.
He said: ‘There no longer exists a party which even pretends to maintain and promote the principles and the integrity of what always was, to me, the Labour party.
‘On the contrary, I have been witnessing, since Mr Corbyn became leader, a philosophical and a political policy which espouses, in nearly every respect, the very antithesis of the great party under whose reputation, and under whose flag, it now seeks to fly and where so many other Jews were once so proud to stand.’
He added: ‘I consider that it has supported and endorsed the most blatant acts of antisemitism.’
Speaking of the party under Mr Corbyn, pictured, he said: ‘There no longer exists a party which even pretends to maintain and promote the principles and the integrity of what always was, to me, the Labour party’
Last night Christine Shawcroft announced she was stepping down from the national executive committee after it was revealed she opposed the suspension of a council candidate accused of Holocaust denial.
In a statement, she said: ‘It has been a privilege to serve on the Labour Party national executive committee for the last 19 years, and I was standing down in September in any event. I have, however, decided to resign with immediate effect.
‘It is clear that my continued membership of the NEC has become a distraction for the Party and an excuse for endless intrusive media harassment of myself, my family and friends.’
Ms Shawcroft added: ‘I reaffirm my complete opposition to anti-Semitism and my abhorrence of Holocaust denial, and support all measures to tackle this within the party.
‘And I pledge my full energy to securing for our country the Labour government under Jeremy Corbyn that it so desperately needs.’
The news comes as Christine Shawcroft, pictured, has said she is stepping down from the national executive committee after it was revealed she opposed the suspension of a council candidate accused of Holocaust denial
Comedian Eddie Izzard (pictured at last year’s Labour conference in Brighton) is set to replace Ms Shawcroft on the party’s ruling body
She caused further anger with a Facebook post – subsequently taken down – claiming the row was being ‘stirred up to attack Jeremy, as we all know’.
Ms Shawcroft had said: ‘This whole row is being stirred up to attack Jeremy, as we all know.
‘That someone who has spent his whole life fighting racism in all its forms should find himself being accused of not doing enough to counter it, absolutely beggars belief.’
She will be replaced on the NEC by the comedian Eddie Izzard.
The activist, Alan Bull, a Labour candidate for Peterborough Council, had been suspended for posting a link on Facebook to a fake news article titled: ‘International Red Cross Report Confirms the Holocaust of Six Million Jews is a Hoax.’
The activist, Alan Bull, a Labour candidate for Peterborough Council, had been suspended for posting a link on Facebook to a fake news article titled: ‘International Red Cross Report Confirms the Holocaust of Six Million Jews is a Hoax’
It was accompanied with a picture of the famous gates of Auschwitz, with the phrase ‘Arbeit Macht Frei’ [work sets you free] replaced with ‘Muh Holocaust’.
This phrase is apparently used by opponents of Israel to allege that whenever anyone criticises it to a Jewish person, they will start talking about the Holocaust to deflect attention.
In his Passover video message, Mr Corbyn said he wanted to ‘remember all our Jewish brothers and sisters, who have battled against discrimination and faced the most horrific acts of violence and mass murder’.
He referred to ‘rising levels of anti-Semitism around the world’, pointing the finger at right-wingers in Poland and France.
But admitting that problems were harder to see ‘closer to home’, he added: ‘We in the labour movement will never be complacent about antisemitism.
‘We all need to do better. I am committed to ensuring the Labour Party is a welcoming and secure place for Jewish people.’