A Labour councillor recently reinstated following a suspension has been reported to the party again after he joined in chants at a pro-Palestine rally which are widely seen as calling for an end to the state of Israel.
Sam Gorst joined former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn on a demonstration on Saturday against an arms fair being held in Liverpool and was caught on camera chanting the Hamas rallying cry: “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.”
The video, posted on Twitter, has prompted Labour Against Antisemitism to report Cllr Gorst to the Labour Party but in his own statement about the clip, Mr Gorst claimed he was being bullied and that his record “stands for itself”.
Cllr Gorst was cleared of antisemitism allegations in 2019 under former leader Jeremy Corbyn and later said he was the victim of a “smear campaign”. He was suspended for 12 months in 2020 but the reasons were not made public.
On Saturday he took part in demonstration against an arms fair being held at a convention centre in Liverpool. Carrying a banner at the front of the parade, Cllr Gorst is filmed joining in the chant.
In a statement, LAAS said it has reported Cllr Gorst to the Labour Party for the second time. It added: “Given Cllr Gorst has only recently returned from a suspension, the next logical step is his expulsion and we trust this will be forthcoming.”
In a Twitter statement, Cllr Gorst thanked “all comrades showing solidarity to me after some horrible and personal attacks in social media and in the press over the last 24 hours”.
He added: “My record stands for itself. Bullies will always be bullies….They will not break me with their nastiness especially when all I am doing is showing opposition to injustices of the world.”
Cllr Gorst previously branded former Liverpool Wavertree MP Ms Berger a "hideous traitor" when she launched a bid to become the city's mayor. In 2019 he described Dame Ellman as a “disgrace” for quitting the party over antisemitism.
He criticised Sir Keir Starmer’s decision to remove Rebecca Long-Bailey from his Shadow Cabinet after she refused to take down a tweet supporting an article which featured an actress blaming Israel for the killing of the black American George Floyd.
In another online post, he described the pro-Corbyn Jewish Voice for Labour Group as "a more fitting group for the Labour membership" than the Jewish Labour Movement.
Cllr Gorst had also defended Pete Willsman, who ranted about Jewish people being "Trump fanatics and all the rest of it" during a meeting of Labour's National Executive Committee and called director Ken Loach a “asset to the Labour party” after he was expelled, reportedly for links to Labour Against the Witch Hunt.
The organisation, now proscribed by Labour, also offered its support for Cllr Gorst during his suspension.
