Labour has suspended a soap actor and hard-left party branch official after the JC revealed he had questioned the loyalty of Jewish MPs to the UK.

John Davies — chair of the St Michaels branch of Liverpool Riverside Labour Party — said the “prime interests” of Jewish MP Ruth Smeeth were not with Jeremy Corbyn’s party but “elsewhere”.

Mr Davies — an actor who has appeared in Coronation Street and Hollyoaks — also suggested Jews who identify with Israel “have a big problem” and justified historical comparisons between Israel and Nazi Germany.

The JC understands that, since we brought his behaviour to the party's attention, he has been suspended.

Ms Smeeth, the MP for Stoke North, and parliamentary chair of the Jewish Labour Movement, told the JC his views had “no place in the party I have dedicated my life to” and called for the leadership to take action against him.

Mr Davies, who also uses the alias Johnny Beggs, has been one of the fiercest critics of his local MP Dame Louise Ellman, who is Jewish.

Last month he circulated a letter among Liverpool Labour activists which blamed “pro-Israel Labour MPs” for both the suspension of MP Chris Williamson and the expulsion of Jackie Walker over allegations of antisemitism.

Mr Davies made his attack on Ms Smeeth after joining other hard-left activists in launching sustained challenges to a Labour council candidate, Stephane Savary, who expressed support for the Jewish Labour Movement in a Facebook post last year.

A Labour supporter in the discussion thread praised Ruth Smeeth for her work with the trade union movement and for her work with the anti-racist campaign group Hope not Hate.

But Mr Davies, writing as Johnny Beggs, stated: “Hope Not Hate is no longer taken seriously as an anti-racist organisation.”

He added: “Ruth Smeeth worked for BRITCOM (sic) an Israel advocacy group.

“She either lied about Marc Wadsworth [the activist expelled for allegations involving antisemitism after confronting Ms Smeeth after the Chakrabarti report] or has hearing difficulties — nothing Marc said was remotely antisemitic.

“Her prime interests are neither socialism nor the Labour Party — they lie elsewhere.”

Ms Smeeth, who has repeatedly been targeted by hard-left activists, told the JC: “I have been a Labour member since I was a teenager. This man and his vile views have no place in the party that I have dedicated my life too.

“These traditional anti-Jewish tropes about dual loyalty and the disgusting justifications of Hilter’s stance towards Jews are simply unacceptable—the Labour Party needs to take action.”

Mr Savary, who is now vice-chair of the Jewish Labour Movement, said: “John Davies directed his attacks at me poured because I am a Jewish Labour member.

“I only later learned that the name he used to mount this attacks, Johnny Beggs, was a false name, used to make these disgraceful attacks on myself and on other Jews.

“Some of his claims about Hitler and the disloyalty of Jewish MPs are more suited to the far-right than to someone who claims to be a left-wing supporter of Jeremy Corbyn.”

Mr Davies also falsely claimed his own MP Dame Louise Ellman had used a parliamentary speech to express support for “Israel’s child prisoner policy.”

He also suggested Luciana Berger, who quit Labour in February citing “institutional antisemitism”, was not interested in challenging racism but “in damaging Corbyn and making Palestinian advocacy risky.”

When someone questioned linking those accusing Labour of antisemitism with Hitler, Mr Davies also wrote: “I think historical comparisons need to be made sometimes.”

Mr Davies sought to justify the former Mayor of London Ken Livingstone’s repeated references to Hitler and Zionism.

He wrote that Mr Livingstone had been expected to provide “a detailed resumé” of Hitler’s policy for “an MSM soundbite”.

Mr Davies added that Mr Livingstone’s “focus point was the collaboration of Zionism and Nazism on the basis that the former saw the creation of a Jewish state in Palestine as its prime objective and undermining of the Nazi state as secondary.”

Ken Livingstone resigned from the Labour Party in May last year. This week he became honourary president of Labour Against the Witchhunt, which campaigns against accusations of antisemitism in the party. 

Mr Davies further criticised the Jewish Labour Movement — the main representative group for Jews in Labour — writing: “I don’t think all Jews who identity as Zionists, liberal or otherwise are necessarily racist.

“I do however think that liberal Jews, who want their Israeli cake but don’t want to be perceived as racists have a big problem. 

“How do you argue for a Zionist theory that isn’t racist?”

Mr Davies also defended another left-wing activist, Wesley Hall, who called for Zionism to be “eradicated from the earth,” and accused Zionists and Freemasons of genocide.

Mr Davies wrote: “Zionist colonial thinking has huge backing across the various western ruling classes… the settler colonial project in Palestine (ie Zionism) is certainly a core problem.”

Mr Davies — best known for playing Les Hunter in Channel 4’s Hollyoaks — wrote the “Hands Off The Left” letter signed by more than 50 activists in Liverpool in which he claimed “pro-Israel Labour MPs” would “prefer a pro-Israel Conservative government to a socialist Labour government, critical of Israel” .

Dame Lousie Ellman told the JC that Mr Davies’ attack on Hope not Hate, the challenge to the loyalty of Jewish MPs, the reference to Freemasons and the equation of Zionism with racism were all “deeply troubling.”

She added: “This demonstrates Labour’s problem with antisemitism."

A Labour spokesperson said: "The Labour Party takes all complaints of antisemitism extremely seriously and we are committed to challenging and campaigning against it in all its forms.

"All complaints about antisemitism are fully investigated in line with our rules and procedures and any appropriate disciplinary action is taken."

CLARIFICATION April 2, 2020: In this article, we reported comments from a named Labour MP who claimed John Davies had made comments which represented 'disgusting justifications of Hilter’s stance towards Jews'. This article failed to link this comment to the support Mr Davies had given to Ken Livingstone who had spoken about Hitler's support for a Jewish state, which was reported elsewhere in the article. The presentation of the comment could have incorrectly suggested to readers that the complainant had sought to justify the Holocaust.