A controversial councillor bidding to replace Dame Louise Ellman as Liverpool Riverside MP was refused entry into a meeting of the local Labour Party after a bitter bust-up between left-wing members.
Jo Bird – who was briefly suspended by Labour after the JC revealed her comments about antisemitism - was trying to meet activists at the local party’s regular gathering on Friday night, claiming she wanted to “familiarise herself” with the constituency.
But angry scenes erupted as Cllr Bird was told she was not able to come into the meeting without prior approval.
When one hard-left activist from the local St Michaels Labour branch continued to protest about the decision not to let Cllr Bird in, he too was asked to leave the venue.
He was overheard shouting: “You are all a bunch of antisemites.”
Sources within Liverpool Riverside told the JC on Monday that a split had emerged amongst the left-wing membership – with some unimpressed with Cllr Bird, who is not a member of the Riverside Constituency Labour Party (CLP), seeking a place on the shortlist to replace Dame Louise, who quit the party earlier this month claiming antisemitism had now become “mainstream” in the party.
Malcolm Kennedy, a Labour councillor in the Riverside constituency who has spoken out against party members' attacks on Dame Louise, later said of Cllr Bird: "For her to be selected would be an outrage."
Another source said: “There was utter chaos as Jo Bird tried to get into Friday’s meeting.
“I was not surprised to see her being supported by some of the people who had been so persistent in their attacks on Louise Ellman over a long period of time in Riverside.
“The activists who had made accusations that Louise was somehow under the control of the Israeli government – they seem to be the sort of people now supporting Jo Bird.”
The source confirmed that a split had emerged among the hard-left in Riverside over support the councillor’s move to stand for selection.
“It revolves around differences of opinion between Momentum loyalists and those connected to the Left Alliance who support Chris Williamson and Ken Livingstone,” they added.
“It’s real far-left factionalist stuff.”
The JC revealed earlier this month that Cllr Bird, who sits on Wirral Borough Council, was planning to stand for selection in the seat.
In a video released to support her bid to become the Labour candidate, Cllr Bird said: "For me as a Jewish person, as a socialist and as a human I’m proud to represent this community.
"Louise Ellman was elected on a Labour ticket, she should resign and call a by-election as she is no longer part of the Labour Party.”
Asked by the Liverpool Echo last week about her suspension from Labour in March, Cllr Bird said: “The Jewish Chronicle attacked me, quoting a speech I made on anti-racism, including a play on words, 'due/Jew process'.
"I said I am sorry for any offence caused - that was not my intention. No one knew how long my suspension would last and my anxiety levels hit the roof. Over a thousand people said publicly, ‘It’s ridiculous to suspend a Jewish councillor for making a Jewish joke’.
“Thanks to them Labour re-instated me nine days later.”
But complaints about Cllr Bird involved more than just her much repeated “Jew process” joke.
She had claimed there was a “privileging of racism against Jews” over other forms of discrimination and said it had been wrong to expel Marc Wadsworth from Labour after his confrontation with Jewish MP Ruth Smeeth.
Cllr Bird also adapted the famous ‘First they came for...’ Holocaust poem by German theologian Martin Niemoller to include the line: “They came for the anti-Zionists, and I stood up because I was not a target, I stood up in solidarity."
The comments were widely condemned, including by Countdown star Rachel Riley.
Cllr Bird has continued to play up her Jewish roots.
But in an earlier article published on the website of fringe, pro-Corbyn group Jewish Voice For Labour titled ‘What is it to be Jew-ish?’, Cllr Bird wrote about her “mixed heritage” upbringing and “being told I was Jewish because my mother is”.
Cllr Bird said she later explored her Jewish identity but the turning point came when she first visited “Palestine-Israel in 2001.”
Cllr Bird says she is “relaxed about my Jewish identity” insisting: “I call myself a Jaetheist, and joke that I’m not a very good Jew because I don’t practise [the religion]. I do practise solidarity though.”
In a statement last Friday, the Jewish Leadership Council and the Merseyside Jewish Representative Council said Cllr Bird's potential candidacy was "profoundly concerning to the mainstream Jewish community".
