Jeremy Corbyn and a series of Labour MPs have posed alongside a party activist who was previously forced to apologise for a series of antisemitic remarks.
Mr Corbyn attended the launch event of the Labour Muslim Network alongside Ali Milani, who earlier this year said he was sorry for invoking an antisemitic trope about Jews and money and for saying Israel had no right to exist.
The party leader was joined by MPs including Andy Slaughter, Wes Streeting, Dawn Butler, Rupa Huq and Afzal Khan, who has himself previously compared Israel to the Nazis.
Mr Milani is a vice-president of the National Union of Students and executive member of the new Labour Muslim Network.
As part of an exchange of tweets in 2012, he posted a message which read: “Nah u won’t mate it will cost you a pound #jew”
He also sent messages stating that “Israel has no right to exist” and that “Israel is a land built on ethnic cleansing and colonialism. Oppression is something your people should know about”.
On another occasion, he wrote: “So lecturer asks the class today ‘nobody in this room would ever want to go to war right?’ My hand rises. ‘Who?’ Me: ‘Israel’.”
He also responded to a tweet by Piers Morgan by calling him “a Zionist and corperate [sic] jackass”.
Mr Morgan’s tweet had not been on the subject of Israel or Jews.
When Mr Milani stood for election as an NUS vice-president in April, the Union of Jewish Students said it was “very worrying” that he had “previously expressed views that many Jewish students will find deeply antisemitic”.
The UJS said: “The use of tropes that denote Jews as cheap or stingy is extremely offensive and, as made clear by various reports into antisemitism in the last year, it is completely unacceptable to use the word ‘Zionist’ as a term of abuse.”
Mr Milani subsequently apologised, telling the Tab student newspaper: “I have apologised unreservedly for these comments before and I do so again. They do not reflect how I see the world today.
“These tweets are from an incredibly long time ago – when I was 16 to 17 years old. It’s unacceptable, I know that now. Education taught me that.”
At last night’s Parliament event, Mr Milani reportedly told guests: “There is no doubt that the future of Muslims is enshrined in political engagement and that can only be achieved through the Labour Party.”
The event was described as a showcase of LMN’s work and long-term vision, and included a panel looking at Labour’s future engagement with British Muslims.
The Labour Party has been contacted for comment.
