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Jackie Walker, long-suspended Labour member, to face expulsion hearing in March

She was suspended in 2016 after saying she could not find a definition of antisemitism she could 'work with'

February 5, 2019 14:53
Jackie Walker
1 min read

Jackie Walker, the Labour member who has been suspended for more than two years after saying she could not find a definition of antisemitism she could "work with", is to face an expulsion hearing in March.

Ms Walker will face the March 26 hearing after being suspended since November 2016.

Her long-time suspension has become symbolic of Labour's struggles to deal with the surge in accusations of antisemitism among its members, which have overwhelmed its disciplinary system.

The Red Roar, a leftwing blog that is critical of the party's leadership's handling of the antisemitism crisis, wrote that Ms Walker's hearing would prove a "key test" of processes introduced by General Secretary Jennie Formby since she took over in April last year.

Ms Walker was suspended twice in 2016. The first time, it was for saying Jewish people were "financiers of the sugar and slave trade".

She was later reinstated but was suspended again for saying she had not found a definition of antisemitism she could "work with", after questioning why Holocaust Memorial Day did not commemorate other genocides, only for it to be pointed out to her that it does.