UK Labour party failed to expel member arrested last week for anti-Semitism

A top aide to Labour party leader Jeremy Corbyn blocked an attempt to suspend a party member accused of anti-Semitism who was later arrested, according to the Sunday Times.

Patricia Sheerin, a 72-year old former Labour party member, was arrested last week for publishing or distributing “material likely to stir up racial hatred,” a police spokesman told Sky News.

She allegedly posted content on Twitter linking Israel to the Islamic State terrorist organization and spread allegations that Jews were behind the Ukrainian revolution in 2014, the Sunday Times reported.

The posts were reported to the Labour party leadership last March, prompting some to call for Sheerin’s expulsion from the opposition party. The party’s executive director at the time, Emilie Oldknow, begged for the suspension request to be honored, saying “PLEASE can we get a response (…) The next thing will be people saying we are soft on anti-Semitism or not acting. I would like to avoid that please,” the email published by the Sunday Times said.

Laura Murray, a close aide to Corbyn, looked into the posts and ultimately rebuffed the request to expel Sheerin from the party. In an email, Murray responded saying that the “LOTO,” or leader of the opposition, said they would investigate but keep Sheerin in the party, for “although her tweets are drawing upon conspiracy theories, they are about Israel and no mention of Jews or Jewishness etc.,” the email said.

In response to Sheerin’s arrest, a Labour party official said that party staff in Corbyn’s office did not attempt to intervene in the case and did not overrule suspension.

Sheerin later voluntarily resigned from the party following a separate complaint.

In a separate incident last week, at the Hampstead and Kilburn Constituency Labour Party’s (CLP) general committee, vice-chair Mike Katz was called a “fifth columnist” for criticizing the CLP’s motion of support for Member of Parliament Chris Williamson, who was suspended for inflammatory remarks about anti-Semitism.

Later on in the meeting, CLP chair Katharine Bligh called for a motion to reinstate all members accused of anti-Semitism. She did not insist on a retraction of the “fifth columnist” comment, the Jewish Chronicle reported.

A Jewish member present at the meeting felt “attacked and targeted” as the party “descended into chaos,” they told the Jewish Chronicle.

“It has got to the stage where in seven out of nine monthly meetings, there are motions about Jews and Israel,” the attendee said in an interview. “The anti-Semitism isn’t always explicit, but it’s always implied.”

Alleged hate speech against Jews has been recorded within the Labour Party since 2015, when Jeremy Corbyn, a far-left politician, was elected to lead the party. The Board of Deputies of British Jews umbrella group has accused Corbyn of encouraging anti-Semitic rhetoric and at times engaging in it, though he disputes the claim.

Last Friday, British police arrested three people near London suspected of inciting anti-Semitic hatred in the Labour Party’s ranks. The arrests were rare interventions by law enforcement against suspected propagators of anti-Semitism within the party.

Also last week, Corbyn came under heavy fire after expressing regret for defending a 2012 anti-Semitic mural in London’s East End.

The mural, named Freedom of Humanity, was painted on a property near Brick Lane by the Los Angeles-based graffiti artist Kalen Ockerman. It depicted a group of men – seemingly caricatures of Jewish bankers and businessmen – counting their money on a Monopoly board which is balanced on the back of naked workers.

In response, British Jews took part in an unprecedented demonstration in Parliament Square against the anti-Semitism crisis which has engulfed the Labour party, chanting that “enough is enough.”

Following growing public scrutiny of the problem, Labour is facing the prospect of an official inquiry by the United Kingdom’s Equality and Human Right’s Commission, the main government anti-racism watchdog.