Anger as Labour’s first Minister of Wales to join Corbyn ‘Trot jamboree’ - The Jewish Chronicle

Labour’s First Minister of Wales is under growing pressure to pull out of an event that features high-profile speakers embroiled in Labour’s antisemitism crisis.

The Board of Deputies has joined calls for Mark Drakeford to withdraw from The World Transformed event this month – the “alternative” Labour conference that features Jeremy Corbyn and Ken Loach as speakers.

Board President Marie van der Zyl said she was “deeply concerned” about the First Minister’s appearance at the four-day festival, which runs alongside Labour’s conference in Brighton.

She said: “It cannot be fitting for the First Minister and Welsh Labour leader to participate in events with people who have been suspended or expelled from Labour for their role in the party’s antisemitism crisis over recent years.”

Labour’s annual conference, being held in Brighton later this month, is a chance for Sir Keir Starmer to set out a new vision for his leadership after a turbulent 17 months in office.

However, it already risks being overshadowed by the growing controversy around Mr Drakeford’s appearance at the alternative event, dubbed by one Labour councillor as a “Trot jamboree”.

Among those listed as speakers is former leader Jeremy Corbyn, who was briefly suspended and had Labour’s parliamentary whip removed for insisting the party’s antisemitism crisis was “dramatically overstated for political reasons”. British film director Ken Loach, expelled last month over his association with one of four hard-left groups proscribed by Labour’s ruling NEC in July, is also listed as a speaker.

Mr Loach is a supporter of the now-banned Labour Against the Witchhunt, launched to campaign for members suspended or expelled following complaints of antisemitism.

Others speakers include Labour MPs from the Socialist Campaign Group (SCG), including leader Richard Burgon and Jon Trickett and Zarah Sultana. The SCG last month issued a letter condemning the expulsion of Mr Loach. Asad Rehman, executive director of War on Want, is also listed to speak. War on Want was among 20 pro-boycott advocates banned from Israel in 2018 by the Strategic Affairs Ministry.

At the time, Mr Rehman branded the move a “desperate attempt to silence a growing movement that is holding Israel to account for its systematic abuse of Palestinian rights”. He labelled it “a repressive tactic borrowed from the same playbook used by the apartheid regime in South Africa when it tried to censor critics”.

Larissa Kennedy, President of the National Union of Students, is also listed as a speaker. She was criticised earlier this year for sharing a platform with Omar Barghouti, the founder and leader of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement.

The decision of Mr Drakeford to speak at the festival was also criticised by the Wales Against Antisemitism group. It tweeted: “Why does Mark Drakeford... think it appropriate to speak at this event, given antisemitism controversies involving many of his fellow speakers?”

However, Jewish Voice for Labour (JVL) supported the First Minister’s appearance at an event described by organisers as a “welcoming space” for those who feel “alienated” by the current leadership. Speaking to the socialist Morning Star, a JVL spokesman said: “Hurling evidence-free accusations of antisemitism around like confetti and then attempting to turn people like Jeremy Corbyn into non-persons who must be shunned, is absolutely deplorable and dangerous for democracy.”

He praised Mr Drakeford for “having no truck with this censorious nonsense”.

The JC contacted Welsh Labour for comment.

The World Transformed event is being formally supported by Young Labour, Unite and the Socialist Campaign Group of MPs. They will join traditional sponsors Momentum and the CWU in what has been billed as a rallying point for the left “to plan its next moves”.