Pete Firmin thanked Gerry Downing - who was expelled after his case was raised in Parliament - after he congratulated him for having 'defeated the Zionists'
March 10, 2020 09:09
The new chair of a Labour Party branch that has hundreds of Jewish members has interacted with an ex-member who was expelled over "sickening" comments about Jews that were raised in Parliament, the JC has learned.
The JC revealed earlier this month that Pete Firmin had become chair of Hampstead and Kilburn Constituency Labour Party (CLP) amid a hard-left takeover in the seat of MP Tulip Siddiq.
New evidence sent to the JC shows Mr Firmin, who is also joint secretary of the Labour Representation Committee, wrote "thanks comrades" on Facebook to Gerry Downing and other supporters after Mr Downing said he had "defeated the Zionists".
Mr Downing was thrown out of Labour in 2016 over his involvement with the Socialist Fight group which has published articles including one that was headlined “Marxists must address the Jewish Question” and another that referred to a “world Jewish-Zionist Bourgeoisie”.
Sharing the JC's article on March 6 about Mr Firmin, Mr Downing wrote: "Well done to Pete Firmin and other comrades in Hampstead and Kilburn Labour Party who have courageously faced down and defeated the Zionists.
"Democracy is so hard to stomach when you are defeated."
Responding to the message, and other comments praising him, Mr Firmin wrote: "Thanks comrades."
Mr Downing and Mr Firmin interacted on social media in a thread in which Mr Firmin defended local party members who were linked to the International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network (IJAN), a group that called Zionism "racist".
Mr Firmin attacked the Guardian in August 2018, accusing it of trying to "use IJAN as a stick to beat Corbyn and McDonnell".
He wrote: "Core IJAN people are in my LP branch... I have a lot of respect for them and we have worked together on several issues".
When Mr Firmin condemned the Guardian for asking the Community Security Trust to comment on IJAN, Mr Downing replied: "The main spokesman of the CST is Dave Rich.
"He accused Socialist Fight of being as bad as Karl Marx and Abram Leon on the Jewish Question after Andrew Neil interviewed me on the Daily Politics. I'll take that."
In 2016, Prime Minister David Cameron attacked Mr Corbyn over Mr Downing's membership of Labour during prime minister's questions.
Mr Cameron called Mr Downing a "9/11 sympathiser" and said Labour must expel him. Then-Labour MP John Woodcock called Mr Downing's views "sickening".
Mr Corbyn did not respond but Mr Downing was later expelled shortly afterwards.
The JC has learned Mr Firmin also defended then-MP Chris Williamson after he was suspended by Labour in February 2019.
He wrote there was "no problem" with what Mr Williamson said.
The MP had been suspended for saying the party was "too apologetic" over antisemitism, his latest intervention over the issue that led to the Jewish Labour Movement branding him a "Jew-baiter".
Hampstead and Kilburn CLP has played a central role in the party's antisemitism crisis.
Phil Rosenberg, a former councillor in West Hampstead and now Director of Public Affairs at the Board of Deputies, said in 2018 its meetings often feature “obsessional Jew-baiting and Israel bashing”.
He wrote: “I have unfortunately faced antisemitism before from some people in the Labour Party... there is a culture of people egging each other on and thinking it is okay.”
Leao Neto quit as CLP chair last November claiming there was a “wider culture of aggressive intimidation and exclusion”.
The constituency is home to around 7,000 Jewish voters and the local CLP, has around 2,000 members, has always seen strong involvement from the community.
Mr Firmin did not respond to the JC's requests for comment.
