Two universities have stripped titles from a sociology academic who suggested on social media that someone should "blow up the venue" of a Jewish Labour conference.
Harriet Bradley, who worked at the University of Bristol and University of the West of England (UWE) wrote the comment about the Jewish Labour Movement event on X/Twitter. She wrote, under a post which said shadow cabinet members Wes Streeting and Bridget Phillipson were due to speak at the event: “Somebody blow up the venue!”. This has since been deleted.
Bradley also posted another remark about the gathering which read: “If you wanted to know where you can find every racist, n**ce and sh**house in Britain, now you know.” In another post, she says about the conference: “God preserve us. I’d walk through mud and nettles rather than listen to these evil people.”
Another message from Bradley, posted on 5 December, read: “All Zionist supporters should go straight to hell. They are demons not human beings”.
The JLM event on January 14 is due to host some of the party’s biggest names as speakers including Wes Streeting, Peter Mandleson, Margaret Hodge, Luciana Berger, Ruth Anderson and Louise Ellman.
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The University of Bristol said on Friday morning it had “withdrawn” Professor Bradley’s “Emeritus and Honorary Status with “immediate effect”. Meanwhile, UWE said: “Harriet Bradley's permanent employment at UWE Bristol ended in 2018, and the title of Emeritus Professor was granted when her employment ended. In May 2023, she was engaged to support a doctoral resubmission on a short-term basis.
“Harriet Bradley is no longer employed by UWE Bristol and following her recent offensive remarks on social media, we can confirm that her honorary title of Emeritus Professor has been removed with immediate effect.”
Ms Bradley is understood to have been granted honorary status of emeritus professor by both the University of Bristol and the University of West England after retiring as a sociology professor.
JLM wrote to the University of Bristol urging it to “send a powerful message about the lack of tolerance” it has for “such hateful, highly dangerous and inflammatory behaviour”.
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They added: “Professor Bradley has decided to encourage those who want to perpetuate acts of violence against Jews, by targeting our conference.
“This is wrong, highly irresponsible and the behaviour that you wouldn’t expect from a first-year undergraduate, let alone an emeritus professor.”
A spokesman for the Community Security Trust (CST) said: "It is utterly shocking anyone would make a threat like this against Jewish people, at a time when anti-Jewish hate crime is at record levels. It's even worse that this comes from a former councillor and academic who ought to know better."
Meanwhile, Avon and Somerset Police said it had recorded the post as an "incident of malicious communications" and it was being investigated.
Bradley, 78, told the JC her post about “blowing up” the conference was “only banter! A joke! But I do realise now it was in bad taste and would like to apologise to all those offended or frightened by it”.
She went on to say she “deplored the way that Labour has been taken over by pro-Zionist people and left-wing Jews have been kicked out”.
About the other posts, she said: “These are reflections of the anger I feel at the slaughter of innocent children and babies in Gaza. I deplore the violence of Hamas but it does not justify the massive violence and destruction of Gaza which in my view does amount to genocide.”
Bradley was formerly a Labour councillor but was suspended in 2019 following comments she captioned a photo with the quote: "the right kind of Jews - ie left voters". She was later reinstated before stepping down in June 2020 citing "long-term ill-health".
