LSE student who apologised over ‘Zionist’ comment fails to win union vote

A student who apologised to the Jewish community for claiming “leading Zionists” had tried to swing a university election has failed to win the poll.

Rayhan Uddin had been running for the post of general secretary of the London School of Economics student union.

But neither he, nor his rival candidate received the required percentage of votes, and voting will now be re-opened.

In this week’s poll, Mr Uddin received 992 votes, less than the option to “re-open the nominations”(RON) which 1,038 students supported.

When other votes were redistributed, RON beat Mr Uddin by 125.

Details of the new vote are expected to be announced by LSE’s student union on Friday.

Mr Uddin had apologised on Wednesday after he lobbied another candidate – Samiha Begum – to drop out of the race.

He claimed “leading Zionists” had attempted to “win back LSE and make it right wing and Zio again”.

Mr Uddin said he was “deeply sorry to all those who I have angered or offended” after his message to Ms Begum was leaked on Facebook.

A complaint about his remarks was made to Labour peer Baroness Royall, who is investigating claims of antisemitism at Oxford University Labour Club.

In the message Mr Uddin sent to Ms Begum, seen by the JC, he wrote that Harry Maxwell, who was endorsed by LSE’s Jewish and Israel societies, was “running a very slick campaign”.

Mr Uddin wrote: “We discussed the other day how he is backed by Jay Stoll [a former Jewish LSE SU general secretary] and other leading Zionists around the country because they want to win back LSE and make it right wing and Zio again.

“The Zionists at LSE have two priorities this year; getting last year’s LSE Israel society president Josh Seitler to become the new UJS President, and the second is for Harry Maxwell to become Gen Sec.

“The first has already happened. If the second happens too, not only will it be awful for Muslims and pro-Palestine activists at LSE, but for Muslims and pro-Palestine activists across the whole country.

“A combination of Josh and Harry will be really damaging to all the work NUS and others are doing with BDS, Prevent and other things.”

In a lengthy explanation on his Facebook page, Mr Uddin apologised for using the word "Zio".

He wrote: "I would like to take this opportunity to apologise unreservedly to the Jewish community.

"As somebody who stands in a proud tradition of anti-racism it is utterly repugnant to me to think that I may have unwittingly appeared to endorse in any way the foul ideology of antisemitism, I am deeply sorry to all those who I have angered or offended, and I hope to have the opportunity to win back your trust in the future."

The JC Podcast: Antisemitism on campus

This story has been amended