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New Labour MP Lisa Forbes to meet Jewish groups after she apologises for 'the hurt' she caused

Board of Deputies tells her the meeting will include 'why the messages that you approved promote Jew-hatred and contain antisemitic conspiracy theories'

June 17, 2019 14:48
Jeremy Corbyn campaigning with Lisa Forbes in Peterborough
2 min read

Jewish groups have agreed to meet Labour's Peterborough MP Lisa Forbes after she wrote to them apologising for the "hurt" caused by the revelation she had approved of antisemitic posts on Facebook.

Ms Forbes wrote to the Board of Deputies after her victory in the June 6 poll to say she had "caused hurt in your community, to you and to those you represent".

In the last days of the campaign, which Ms Forbes won by 683 votes, she was revealed to have liked antisemitic Facebook posts, including one that claimed Theresa May had a "Zionist slave master's agenda" and that Mossad created ISIS. She had also signed a letter opposing the IHRA definition of antisemitism that called Israel an "apartheid state".

The Jewish Labour Movement urged the party to suspend her within hours of her election.