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'Jew process' Labour councillor suspended for second time amid bid for election to governing body
Jo Bird was suspended alongside another NEC candidate
February 8, 2020 19:50
Jo Bird was suspended alongside another NEC candidate
February 8, 2020 19:50A Wirral councillor who previously spoke of the "privileging" of antisemitism over other forms of racism and joked about "Jew process", has been suspended from taking part in elections to sit on Labour's ruling body.
Cllr Bird, who was previously suspended last March, was informed that she and another candidate, Mohammed Azam, could no longer stand in the election for the National Executive Committee following a decision last Thursday.
It was claimed she was out in front with nominations from Constituency Labour Parties (CLPs) at the time of her suspension.
In an apparent split on the left, Cllr Bird was not placed on the Momentum slate of candidates for the NEC election - but she was backed by the hard-left Labour Representation Committee.
It comes as anti-Israel blogger Asa Winstanley announced he had quit Labour ahead of moves by the party to expel him over his repeated dismissals of Labour's antisemitism crisis and references to the "Israeli lobby in the UK".
Sources told the JC that Labour had tried to speed up disciplinary cases ahead of the publication of the Equalities and Human Rights Commission's investigation into claims the party was institutionally antisemitic.
On Friday, Mr Winstanley said he had quit rather than be expelled by the party.
He wrote: "The allegations amount to an attack on my reporting about Palestine, Zionism, the Israel lobby in the UK and the manufactured antisemitism crisis in Labour since 2015.
"They are an effort to smear me personally as an antisemite in order to silence me and intimidate others into silence over Israel’s crimes against Palestinians.
"This political inquisition also aims to stop people talking about and reporting on the role the Israel lobby plays in ensuring the ongoing silence and complicity of our political leaders in relation to Israel’s crimes."
According to the letter Labour sent Mr Winstanley, which he published, the charges included calling former Labour MP Joan Ryan a "puppet" of Israel, dismissing Labour antisemitism as a "hoax" and a "smear" and referring to the "Israel lobby".
The JC broke the news of his suspension last March after he had attacked the IHRA definition of antisemitism and branded the Jewish Labour Movement an "Israeli embassy proxy."
It is understood that the decision to suspend Cllr Bird, pending an investigation, relates to issues around allegations of antisemitism.
The JC has learned that the decision relates to recent complaints and what the party claims has been extra diligence that was carried out into candidates seeking election to the NEC.
But, despite being informed of her suspension, Cllr Bird turned at up the Local Government Labour conference in Nottingham on Friday.
She was eventually led out of the meeting by LGA officials.
A campaign video accompanying her NEC bid was issued on Twitter by "Just Jews", which claims to offer "an alternative Jewish viewpoint broadening the debate about antisemitism and the Labour Party".
"I'm Jewish, my great-grandparents fled Eastern Europe because of fascism and far right," Cllr Bird says in the video.
She refers to her suspension last March, saying she was merely making "a self-deprecating play on words" and that attacking her for it "does nothing to challenge the far right".
She insists she has been made to feel "welcome" in Labour since joining in 2015.
In June 2018, the JC revealed Cllr Bird had sparked anger after complaining about the “privileging of racism against Jews” compared to discrimination “against black people, Muslim people and migrants”.
She discussed the fringe, pro-Corbyn Jewish Voice For Labour (JVL), saying it "calls for disciplinary hearings to be paused until a due process has been established based on principles of natural justice - what I call 'Jew process'."
She also said: "Seriously, one of the things that does worry me is the privileging of racism against Jews, over and above - as more worthy of resources than other forms of racism."
At the time, Countdown presenter Rachel Riley said she was "aghast" listening to the JC's recording of Cllr Bird's attempt to rewrite the words of the poem "First They Came For..", replacing the word "Jews" with "anti-Zionists".
She tweeted: "Absolutely aghast listening to JVL’s Jo Bird, take a poem about the Holocaust, remove the Jews, to replace them with persecution of anti-racists and anti-Zionists."
After that first suspension, Cllr Bird was readmitted to the party after she apologised.
