‘Don’t vote for a Jew’: London mayoral hopeful suspended
Geeta Sidhu Robb Image by twitter
(JTA) — The United Kingdom’s fourth largest party suspended a candidate for mayor of London who was filmed in 1997 telling voters not to support a Jew.
The Liberal Democrats suspended Geeta Sidhu-Robb, who was vying to become their candidate in London’s 2021 mayoral elections, the Jewish News of London reported.
Over the weekend, a video emerged on Twitter showing her during her 1997 general election campaign for the constituency of Blackburn in northern England. In that campaign, Sidhu-Robb was running as a member of the Conservative Party against Jack Straw, a former Labour lawmaker.
“Don’t vote for a Jew. Jack Straw is a Jew. If you vote for him you’re voting for a Jew,” Sidhu-Robb is seen saying in Urdu into a loudspeaker in Blackburn.
In the video, taken from a documentary about the 1997 elections, Sidhu-Robb explains that she decided on this tactic because her rival’s campaign staffers were saying she’s “against Islam,” making the issue “racist, it’s making it personal.”
So, she added, “we’re going to get the gloves us” and “get a car drive to round through town telling everybody Jack Straw’s a Jew.”
Sidhu-Robb later said she regretted that action, and this week she apologized, writing on Twitter: “I am deeply ashamed of the ignorant and abusive language.”
The post London mayoral hopeful suspended for telling voters in 1997 ‘don’t vote for a Jew’ appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.
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 the protests on college campuses.
Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.
Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
