UK Labour student leader resigns over racist tweets

A student activist for the UK’s Labour party who was chosen to introduce party leader Jeremy Corbyn as he launched a nationwide local election campaign last month resigned Monday over a series of anti-Semitic and racist social media posts she wrote several years ago.

Bethany Barker, the general secretary of the University of Nottingham Labour Students Committee, stepped down after the comments resurfaced in recent weeks.

Among the tweets that Barker posted was a comment that called a yarmulke a “Jew cap.” In another, referring to Norwegian far-right terrorist Anders Behring Breivik, who killed 77 people in a bomb and shooting attack in 2011, she wrote, “Breivik should go get slaughtered by a load of Muslims and get forced to live in a synagogue.”

Other posts carried derogatory terms and references to black people, including an expletive-laden comment expressing her hatred of the BBC’s main broadcasting channel, BBC 1.

The comments were posted between 2012 and 2014 on a Twitter account that has now been deleted.

Barker, 19, presented Corbyn last month at an event in Nottingham as the Labour chief campaigned ahead of local UK elections that were held on May 4.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q8bGIgVVU2U

Corbyn — a bitter critic of Israel’s policies regarding the Palestinians who once referred to the Hamas and Hezbollah terror groups as “friends” — has for months faced criticism that he leads a party harboring anti-Semitic and anti-Zionist sentiments. Although a string of Labour members have resigned or been suspended for making comments that were deemed anti-Semitic or anti-Israel, critics — including some of the party’s members of parliament — have said not enough is being done to deal with a lingering problem.

The British Daily Mail newspaper quoted a Labour Party spokesperson saying “We have noted Bethany Barker’s resignation as General Secretary of Nottingham Labour students and her apology. We don’t comment on individuals’ membership status.”

The University of Nottingham Labour Students said in a statement on its Facebook page that it “condemns these comments and would like to state that it is not representative of the Nottingham Labour Students Committee or our members.”

In a statement, Barker apologized for the “disgusting comments” and asked forgiveness for the mistakes of her juvenile past.

“As some of you may have seen online, some anti-Semitic, homophobic, and racist tweets have resurfaced from my old Twitter account from 2012-14,” Barker wrote. “I understand the upset that these comments have caused and I want to extend my sincerest apologies to anyone that I have offended.”

“I am appalled and ashamed by these comments and I condemn them in their entirety; they are outrageous and wrong and I should have never said them.

“I would like to take this opportunity to apologize to all of you reading this, too. These views are clearly not in line with what I believe today and do not reflect my character.

“I have grown up, developed and matured a lot since I was 14 years old to the point where, looking back, I find it hard to recognize that person as myself. I am proud of how far I have come since then and will do everything in my power to make amends for the mistakes that I have made.”

JTA contributed to this report.