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Berger constituency chairman believed it was anti-Zionists, not Jews, who were being victimised in Labour

Newspaper reveals Alex Scott-Samuel, who oversaw no-confidence motions in Liverpool Wavertree, met Jeremy Corbyn to discuss his own concerns

February 17, 2019 11:39
Dr Alex Scott-Samuel (wearing glasses, facing the camera) pictured with Jeremy Corbyn
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The official at the centre of allegations concerning the bullying of Labour MP Luciana Berger held a meeting with Jeremy Corbyn to discuss what he considered the “victimisation” of anti-Zionists.

Alex Scott-Samuel, the chairman of the local Labour Party in Ms Berger’s Liverpool Wavertee constituency, approved motions of no-confidence in the MP on the grounds that her campaign against antisemitism amounted to “disloyalty” to Mr Corbyn.

The Mail on Sunday said Mr Scott-Samuel met the Labour leader in 2016 to discuss what he considered was victimisation of people who took his own position.

He took a prominent position at last year’s Labour Party Conference in Liverpool – the same meeting in which Ms Berger needed an armed guard to protect her against militant supporters of Mr Corbyn.

After Mr Scott-Samuel approved the motions against her, Ms Berger became the target of an intense and vitriolic online campaign, including being called an “Israeli attack dog” and a “dirty little Zionist rat” online.

Two motions of no-confidence in her were later withdrawn.

According to extracts in the Mail on Sunday from a biography of the Labour leader by Tom Bower, Mr Corbyn’s anti-Zionist views have their roots in his first job as a union official in which “he came to believe in the ‘malign collective power of Jews’”.