Momentum activist Marlene Ellis has been suspended from the Labour Party over a blog which accused Jeremy Corbyn of playing “right into the hands of Zionist criminals” by suspending Ken Livingstone.
The blog, which described Mr Livingstone’s suspension as “unjustifiable” and called on Mr Corbyn to reverse it, was posted by Ms Ellison on the Momentum Black ConneXions group (MBC) website.
The piece described the action taken against the former mayor of London as a “ knee-jerk reaction to pro-Zionist and other right-wing pressures from within and outside the current Labour Party leadership”.
It added: “We of Momentum Black ConneXions (MBC) never imagined a Labour Party led by you, Jeremy Corbyn, would ever immediately react in such frightful haste by clamping down on the freedom of critical radical expression.”
Mr Livingstone was suspended after he claimed that Hitler had supported Zionism. The blog described his remarks on antisemitism and anti-racism as “quite interesting”, and claimed that Zionism had been disorted by racism.
It also called for the suspension of Labour MP John Mann who confronted Mr Livingstone over his comments.
MBC claimed that Mr Mann, the chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group against Antisemitism, had “brought the party into disrepute”.
“He clearly has an agenda, has brought the party into disrepute and has deliberately misrepresented the honest intentions of Ken Livingstone in order to undermine Sadiq Khan, yourself and therefore, the Labour Party. We call for his immediate suspension and for him to also go through a disciplinary process,” the blog said.
A spokesperson for Labour confirmed that Ms Ellis had been suspended pending an investigation.
Ms Ellis hit the headlines recently when she described Chuka Umunna, a member of the Shadow Cabinet under former leader Ed Miliband, as not “politically black”.
