Members expelled now for disputing heavily-flawed non-definition whose own author has criticised its effect on freedom of speech – yet in 2016 Starmer and other MPs wanted to amend it for that very reason
Keir Starmer’s duplicity concerning supposed antisemitism in the Labour party continues to unravel thanks to sharp-eyed critics on the left.
Earlier, one social media user pointed out that Starmer had ‘liked’ a Twitter thread exposing the scam of the ‘Labour antisemitism’ smear – a ‘sin’ that would certainly see any left-winger expelled from the party.
But another supposed crime that would inevitably be used to expel anyone from the left of the party is to query, criticise, challenge or seek to amend the so-called ‘IHRA definition’ of antisemitism – an appallingly unclear document that Jewish legal experts, including a retired judge and the long-time legal adviser to the Commission for Racial Equality among others, have said doesn’t define anything and whose author has even said it is unfit because of its effect on freedom of speech about the behaviour of the Israeli state.
These days, such facts are generally ignored by the media and by the Labour party in their eagerness to crush criticism of Israel and purge the left. But it turns out that Keir Starmer once came to the same conclusions too, as Steve Powers discovered:
Starmer was a signatory to a Commons Home Affairs Committee document that wanted to amend the ‘definition’ by adding additional clarifications to ensure it couldn’t be used exactly how it is being used.
That same Tory-dominated committee, just before Starmer joined it, also concluded that there was no evidence of more antisemitism in the Labour party than any other:
Despite significant press and public attention on the Labour Party, and a number of revelations regarding inappropriate social media content, there exists no reliable, empirical evidence to support the notion that there is a higher prevalence of antisemitic attitudes within the Labour Party than any other political party.
The committee consisted of six Tories, one SNP MP and two Labour MPs – both of whom had close ties to Israel, yet they could not find any evidence of ‘Labour antisemitism’ as a phenomenon any different to anywhere else.
Throughout the entire duration of the smear, there was no evidence either – so the media and right-wing Labour MPs had to concoct it and misrepresent or ignore facts to create the illusion, with the help of their media allies. In other words, it was a scam.
And Keir Starmer knew the dangers of the so-called ‘definition’ – misrepresented as ‘the international’ definition, even though most countries do not accept it. Despite this, today he and cronies will expel members who raise the same concerns.
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