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North London Labour Party loses nearly 20 per cent of members in a year
The Hampstead & Kilburn constituency has around 7,000 Jewish voters
March 11, 2019 13:31
The Hampstead & Kilburn constituency has around 7,000 Jewish voters
March 11, 2019 13:31Hampstead and Kilburn Labour Party has lost nearly 20 per cent loss of its members – amid a hard-left takeover of leading positions at the branch.
Sources have told the JC that 422 members of Hampstead and Kilburn constituency Labour Party (CLP) have left the party over the past year – leaving just under 2,000 activists.
The north west London constituency is home to around 7,000 Jewish voters, and the JC has learned of numerous Jewish Labour supporters in the area who have quit the party as a result of the long-running antisemitism scandal.
Hampstead and Kilburn CLP – represented by Tulip Siddiq MP – has long been rocked with allegations of “obsessional Jew-baiting and Israel bashing” at local meetings.
Phil Rosenberg, a former councillor in West Hampstead, and now Director of Public Affairs at the Board of Deputies, told the local Ham & High newspaper last February: “I have unfortunately faced antisemitism before from some people in the Labour Party... there is a culture of people egging each other on and thinking it is okay.”
Leao Neto quit as CLP chair last November claiming there was a “wider culture of aggressive intimidation and exclusion”.
The membership dip comes after reports of around 150,000 people leaving the party nationally.
The Labour leadership was quick to deny that this was because of the antisemitism scandal that has engulfed Jeremy Corbyn and also due to the leadership’s failure to oppose Brexit.
A source connected to Hampstead and Kilburn CLP confirmed that 422 of its members leave the party since January 2018 adding it was down to “a combination of Brexit and anitisemitism concerns”.
Last week, General Secretary Jennie Formby claimed more than 3,000 people had joined the party over the past two weeks - but declines at CLPs like Hampstead and Kilburn would support claims of a big drop in numbers over the past year.
The JC can also reveal a string of notorious hard-left activists have been elected into leading roles at Hampstead and Kilburn CLP during a stormy annual general meeting last month.
Hard-line anti-Zionist Moshe Machover, who overturned a move to expel him from the Labour Party in October, was elected as the CLP's Political Officer.
Mr Machover, who was born in Tel Aviv, last year accused the “pro-Israel lobby” of driving the attacks on Mr Corbyn.
Also elected onto a post at Hampstead and Kilburn CLP was Pete Firmin, as Trade Union Liaison.
Mr Firmin is co-secretary of the Labour Representation Committee, the hard-left group who have argued against the adoption of the IHRA antisemitism definition.
He is also linked to the Labour Against The Witch-hunt group, which defends those in the party accused of antisemitism.
Sara Calloway was elected the CLP’s BAME representative. She called last year for the Jewish Labour Movement to be kicked out of the party for backing what she said was the “apartheid” state of Israel.
Sources confirmed on Monday that last month’s CLP AGM is now the subject of “numerous complaints” which the party has been asked to investigate.
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