Labour Party Chapter Votes Against Condemning Pittsburgh Synagogue Attack

Labour Leader Jeremy Corbyn steps off a train from Leeds as he tours the North of England by rail today on September 3, 2018 Image by Getty Images
Update 1:30 p.m.
A local chapter of the British Labour Party voted against a resolution condemning last week’s massacre at a synagogue in Pittsburgh, with leaders reportedly saying that there was too much focus on “anti-Semitism this, anti-Semitism that.”
Steve Cooke, the secretary of the Norton West party group in England’s County Durham, wrote on Facebook that he he was “aghast to report that an emergency motion on the Pittsburgh synagogue attack which I took to my Labour Party branch meeting last night was voted down, with the leader of Stockton-on-Tees Borough Council and the cabinet member for community safety among its most vociferous opponents,” the Independent reported.
Cooke said that his proposed motion condemned the murders and anti-Semitism in general, but people told him that the resolution should remove references to anti-Semitism and instead merely condemn all forms of racism. According to Cooke, past motions against Islamophobia and anti-migrant rhetoric were not forced to be watered down in such a manner.
Cooke also wrote that members told him there was too much focus on “anti-Semitism this, anti-Semitism that” and that a local councillor claimed the long-running controversy over anti-Semitism in the Labour Party was “just a game being played.”
In the end, the resolution was voted down after only two people voted to support it.
The Labour Party and its leader, the leftist Jeremy Corbyn, have for years been condemned by British Jews for what they see as widespread acceptance of anti-Semitism within the party ranks and leadership. But Cooke said on Facebook that it was the more left-wing members of the party that supported his motion, while the “Corbyn-skeptic” members opposed it.
Elsewhere in Britain, according to the Independent, a local Labour Party branch in Southend West only voted to condemn the Pittsburgh attack after removing a line in the resolution vowing to “recognize that anti-Semitism exists in society and affirm our belief that all forms of anti-Semitism must be eradicated.”
The commissioner of London’s Metropolitan Police said last week that they have launched a criminal investigation into anti-Semitic hate speech within the party.
Contact Aiden Pink at [email protected] or on Twitter, @aidenpink
The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.
Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.
This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism you rely on. Make a Passover gift today!
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Make a Passover Gift Today!
Most Popular
- 1
News Student protesters being deported are not ‘martyrs and heroes,’ says former antisemitism envoy
- 2
News Who is Alan Garber, the Jewish Harvard president who stood up to Trump over antisemitism?
- 3
Fast Forward Suspected arsonist intended to beat Gov. Josh Shapiro with a sledgehammer, investigators say
- 4
Opinion What Jewish university presidents say: Trump is exploiting campus antisemitism, not fighting it
In Case You Missed It
-
Fast Forward FSU shooting suspect used neo-Nazi imagery on social media, ADL finds
-
Fast Forward Pope Francis’ final speech called for ceasefire and hostage release in Gaza war
-
Opinion Shackled, imprisoned and subjected to false accusations, Kilmar Abrego Garcia recalls the fate of Captain Alfred Dreyfus
-
Opinion The dangerous Nazi legend behind Trump’s ruthless grab for power
-
Shop the Forward Store
100% of profits support our journalism
Republish This Story
Please read before republishing
We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines.
You must comply with the following:
- Credit the Forward
- Retain our pixel
- Preserve our canonical link in Google search
- Add a noindex tag in Google search
See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.
To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.