A senior Labour councillor has said that the party’s recent split “has nothing whatsoever to do with antisemitism” and backed the reinstatement of Chris Williamson.
In a recording passed to The Red Roar, Haringey Council cabinet member Noah Tucker sets out a motion claiming that the decision of Luciana Berger and eight other MPs to leave the Labour Party “has nothing whatsoever to do with antisemitism, it has nothing at all to do with accusations of bullying, nothing at all to do with Brexit” but is “about protecting a foreign policy which is based on promoting imperialist war”.
Tucker also rails against the suspension of Chris Williamson MP for “the crime of speaking the truth”, calling him “one of our best and most honest and loyal MPs”.
Members of Tottenham CLP voted in favour of the motion by a large majority, but only after removing the strongest criticism of departing MPs and rejecting an amendment supported by Tucker that called for Williamson’s suspension to be overturned.
Williamson was suspended last week for saying that Labour had been “too apologetic” about antisemitism, and for hosting a film screening for Jackie Walker who was herself suspended from the party after saying that Jews were the “chief financiers of the slave trade”.
Tucker had previously arranged for Jackie Walker to address a meeting of Tottenham Momentum after her suspension in 2016, but the event was later cancelled following fierce criticism. Last year he opposed Haringey council’s adoption of the widely accepted IHRA definition of antisemitism.
