Senior UK Labour members say smear campaign behind anti-Semitism claims

1 May 2016, 3:33 pm

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Senior Labour Party figures are fighting back against charges there is anti-Semitism in the party’s ranks ahead of Thursday’s vote for a new mayor of London.

The British Labour Party's candidate for mayor of London, Sadiq Khan. (public domain via wikipedia) — The British Labour Party’s candidate for mayor of London, Sadiq Khan. (public domain via Wikipedia)

Labour legislator Diane Abbott says the party is being smeared by its political enemies while union leader Len McCluskey says the controversy is being exploited by Labour’s rivals.

Labour’s mayoral candidate Sadiq Khan has conceded the anti-Semitic issue has made his election campaign more difficult in the final days before the vote.

The row intensified days ago when former London Mayor Ken Livingston was suspended from his senior Labour Party post after asserting that Adolf Hitler had been a Zionist before he launched the Holocaust. Livingstone spoke while defending a Labour Party legislator who had been suspended for anti-Semitic posts.

— AP