@ewansomerville
An MP and Jeremy Corbyn ally at the centre of the Sheffield Labour Students scandal has declared the party âtoo apologeticâ over antisemitism.
Footage from the event at a Sheffield church on Saturday, which has since gone viral, sees Chris Williamson tell local Momentum activists that Labour was being âdemonised as a racist, bigoted partyâ.
Williamson faced a censure by party officials on Tuesday after he helped arrange the screening of a film defending Jackie Walker, an activist suspended from the party for two years after she made comments allegedly undermining antisemitism and the Holocaust.
It comes after Forge Press revealed last week that three current or former committee members for the Sheffield SU society of Labour students were spotted on an event list to attend the talk, which has sparked national uproar.
The current committee member, who will not be named, incidentally vanished from the âgoingâ list for the Facebook event immediately after we contacted SLS on the issue.
âWilliamson seems to be very deliberately sticking two fingers up at the Jewish community and his colleaguesâ
This was despite SLS, which allowed the talk to be promoted on their public âDiscussion Groupâ of 659 members, telling Forge Press they no longer had âanything to doâ with the MP following u-turning on inviting him to campus last term.
SLS have since told Forge Press that no members or committee officers physically attended the talk, organised by the Sheffield branch of the grassroots pro-Corbyn activism group Momentum.
‘Deliberately inflammatory’
Addressing Labour and Momentum activists, Williamson went on to say âwe have backed off far too much, we have given too much ground, we have been too apologetic.â
WATCH: Chris Williamson tells a Sheffield Momentum meeting that Labour has been "too apologetic" about anti-Semitism… pic.twitter.com/zxtKdHQPvw
— Liz Bates (@wizbates) February 26, 2019
Deputy Labour leader Tom Watson called Williamsonâs comments at the event âdeliberately inflammatoryâ.
A Labour spokeswoman said it was âcompletely inappropriateâ for him to have booked a room in Parliament to show the âWitch Huntâ film, which casts scepticism on claims of an antisemitic culture within Labour.
The Labour chief whip, Nick Brown, will join Jennie Formby, the partyâs general secretary, in reaching out to Williamson to express their discomfort and urge him to cancel the film screening.
Lilian Greenwood, who joined several other Labour MPs in lodging complaints about Williamsonâs behaviour to top party figures, told The Guardian that the MP âseems to be very deliberately sticking two fingers up at the Jewish community and his colleaguesâ.
‘Evil, institutional antisemitism’
Nine MPs broke ranks from the party last week to form the new âIndependent Groupâ, citing an âevilâ institutional culture of antisemitism within the opposition party.
Luciana Berger, one of the breakaway MPs, tweeted the footage of Chris Williamson, released by the Yorkshire Post, saying: “This is what I have left behind. It’s toxic. Our country deserves so much better.”
Gabe Milne, a Jewish student at the University who also threw away his Labour membership card in anger at links between SLS and Williamson uncovered by Forge Press last term, said it was a âdisgraceâ that he was returning to the city.
The SLS-Chris Williamson scandal
SLS sparked uproar for inviting the Derby North MP to speak at Sheffield University in November. Two committee members resigned in protest after SLS ploughed on with the panel discussion despite the uproar.
After Forge Press questioned the University for deeming Williamson âsafeâ to come to campus and not representing a threat to staff or students, management defended the decision of University Security on the grounds of free speech.
Sheffield Jewish Society, a campus activism group, told SLS it had âbetrayed Jewish studentsâ, prompting Williamson to publicly abuse JSoc in a column where he called the students âhaters” and “opponents of socialismâ.
In leaked minutes of a committee meeting at the time, SLS branded Williamson as âpart of our movement,â going on to say that it is âunfair to rescind an invitation based on no evidenceâ.
Labour Party democracy: defeating the right wing splitters – pt 1
Chris Williamson and over 90 members come together in unity to resist the next wave. Actual meeting starts at 1'30" in.
Posted by Momentum Sheffield on Sunday, 24 February 2019
Williamson has previously called antisemitism claims within Labour âa dirty, lowdown trickâ and has tweeted in defence of an alleged âHolocaust revisionistâ and a former Labour Party member who claimed Marks and Spencer had âJewish bloodâ and âJewish ancestorsâ.
The event was âindefinitely postponedâ, not cancelled, following a Met Police probe into hate crimes within the Labour Party – leaving the possibility open that Williamson could return to campus in the near future.
Fellow Labour MPs tweeted to distance themselves from Williamsonâs comments on Saturday, with Stephen Doughty, MP for Cardiff South and Penarth, branding them âunacceptableâ and having âno place in our partyâ.
@ewansomerville