Jackie Walker expelled by Labour over Holocaust comments
2 min read
Left-wing activist Jackie Walker has been expelled by the Labour party over claims of anti-semitism.
The former Momentum vice-chair learned her fate following a hearing by the party's National Constitutional Committee.
She was suspended two-and-a-half years ago after telling a fringe event at the 2016 Labour party conference that she had not heard a definition of anti-Semitism that she could "work with".
Ms Walker also claimed it would be "wonderful" if Holocaust Memorial Day was not focussed solely on Jews.
She had previously been allowed back into the Labour party after being suspended for wrongly claiming on Facebook that Jewish people were "the chief financiers of the slave trade".
It is understood the NCC also considered a pattern of behaviour by Ms Walker, including comments she has made on social media.
A Labour party spokesperson said: "The National Constitutional Committee has found that the charges of breaches of party rules by Jackie Walker have been proven.
"The National Constitutional Committee consequently determined that the sanction for this breach of the rules is expulsion from Labour party membership."
Joe Glasman, of the Campaign Against Antisemitism, said Labour should not have waited nearly three years to expel Ms Walker.
He said: "During those three years she has toured the nation, openly supported by leading Labour MPs, claiming that the case against her was trumped up.
"It is because Labour has shown itself to be incapable of addressing antisemitism cases in a fair, transparent and timely manner that Campaign Against Antisemitism brought in the Equality and Human Rights Commission to take charge.
"Labour’s decision to finally act now that the Commission is at the gate, is not a sign of change, but merely an act of naked self-preservation by a political party being brought face-to-face with its own racism."
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