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News > United Kingdom

Pro-Corbyn MP Reinstated after False Anti-Semitism Accusations

  • Labour Party MP Chris Williamson (L) and party leader, Jeremy Corbyn (R)

    Labour Party MP Chris Williamson (L) and party leader, Jeremy Corbyn (R) | Photo: Reuters

Published 27 June 2019
Opinion

Williamson has openly rejected U.S. aggression against Venezuela and Iran and denounced Turkey’s torture of political prisoners.

Labour Party MP Chris Williamson returned to Parliament Thursday after a brief suspension over allegations of anti-semitism, which were dismissed as false.

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A three-person disciplinary panel allowed Williamson's readmission to the party, but with a reprimand.

Labour has been battling accusations of anti-Semitism since 2016, and party leader Jeremy Corbyn and other senior party officials have been criticized for failing to take decisive action to deal with it.

British Jewish groups have accused Labour of becoming institutionally anti-Semitic and say the issue has played a part in its inability to take over the Conservative government that may lead the nation into Brexit.

On Thursday, Labour readmitted lawmaker Chris Williamson, 62, a close ally of Corbyn who was suspended after saying in February that the party had been “too apologetic” about anti-Semitism.

In an open letter, 68 members of the Labour staff said, “We do not say this lightly: the decision to readmit Chris Williamson into the party will help to create an environment where Jewish and non-Jewish employees, who care deeply about fighting antisemitism, are made to feel unwelcome by his presence at work.”

Corbyn responded: “I wasn’t involved in the decision at all, it was an independent panel set up through the national executive. They examined the case and they decided to admit him back in, albeit with a reprimand.

“We deal with antisemitism very, very seriously. There is no place for antisemitism in our society, and obviously not in our party as well.”

In the past, Corbyn has been criticized simply for his outward support of Hamas and the Palestinian struggle for a state. 

Williamson has campaigned as an avid socialist and anti-imperialist, openly rejecting the U.S. aggression against Venezuela and Iran.

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