Jewish Labour Movement reacts furiously to attack from Unite official over McCluskey meeting

The Jewish Labour Movement has reacted furiously to an attack on its national secretary by a senior official from the left-wing Unite union.

The attack was over a series of tweets sent by JLM's Peter Mason in January, in which he spoke about a 2018 meeting he had held with Unite's firebrand General Secretary Len McCluskey and others about antisemitism within the Labour movement.

He sought to dispute Mr McCluskey's claim in a television interview that his union had "continued dialogue" with JLM on the issue of Labour antisemitism.

Thread: Len McCluskey hasn’t offered “continued dialogue” with @JewishLabour and certainly hasn’t supported us. When it was clear his mind was closed and agenda fixed, we figured there was little point trying to explain anti-Jewish racism to a “lifelong anti-racist” #Marr

— Peter Mason (@_petermason) January 26, 2020

Two days later, in correspondence seen by the JC, Gail Cartmail, Unite's assistant General secretary, accused Mr Mason of trying to present Mr McCluskey "in the worst possible light".

But JLM chair Mike Katz replied: "Your General Secretary has, at best, taken public positions that have aided and abetted a culture of denialism, obfuscating events that are well documented with incontrovertible evidence; and, at worst, fostered an environment that has led to victimisation of our members."

The Unite letter also asked whether JLM "endorses" what Mr Mason said on Twitter.

Mr Katz responds that JLM "supports unequivocally the comments of our National Secretary, Peter Mason, to which your letter refers".

Mr Mason had written: "So a private meeting was arranged at which we would attempt to explain antisemitism, Jewish identity, and Unite’s important role within the party.

"Firstly, [MCluskey] said, he was a militant atheist. He wasn’t a fan of organised religion. Yet moments later would describe Corbyn as the left’s 'messiah', whilst the other officials in the room grimaced, presumably in embarrassment...

"Secondly, he was frustrated by JLM, and didn’t like what we said. But he’d met other Jewish people who said things he agreed with, so wanted to help and support them instead..."

Ms Cartmail wrote that she wished to "object in the strongest terms to the series of tweets issued by your National Secretary, Peter Mason, on Sunday January 26".

Claiming details of the meeting were meant to remain confidential, Ms Cartmail wrote: "Unite disputes the public mischaracterisation of Len McCluskey’s views and our own.

"In his series of tweets, Mr Mason presents a very partial account of the meeting, with the effect of presenting Len McCluskey and Unite in the worst possible light."

Ms Cartmail's letter said JLM's "main objective" at the meeting was "to make the case against Unite affiliating to Jewish Voice for Labour".

Ms Cartmail added: "This we have not so far done, a fact signally unrecognised by Mr Mason in his twitter thread."

The letter continued: "It is hard to understand what Mr Mason feels he is achieving by his tirade, but we do not believe it best serves the struggle to unite all of us against antisemitism inside or outside the Labour movement, a struggle Unite is committed to.

"This outburst assists no-one."

She continued: "To agree with Mr Mason on one point, Unite is a 'great union' and it deserves to be treated with more respect."

But in a damning rebuke, JLM's national chair Mike Katz insisted in his response: "The confidence of this meeting was broken when your General Secretary first spoke on the public record during an interview with Matt Forde, and again in his interview with Andrew Marr.

"During both occasions Mr McCluskey offered a highly partial view of both the meeting and JLM’s position on the issue of Labour Party antisemitism.

"If Mr McCluskey chooses to use the national broadcast platforms he is offered to breach our trust in such a public manner, then Unite should not find it surprising that we respond through the mediums we have available to us."