We should have marched to shuls or anywhere ‘these bastards hang out’ says Momentum activist

An ex-Labour member who sparked outrage last year by urging the local party to “march” and protest outside a synagogue has doubled-down on those comments in a discussion with other Brighton and Hove Labour Momentum activists.

Amanda Bishop – who is believed to have left the party following her suspension from Labour over the April 2019 comments – this week wrote: “And just for the record, we should have marched to synagogues, churches, council officers, Labour offices and any other institutions where these bastards hang out.”

She added: “They are the ones that have created any fear that now exists in the Jewish community. It is they are antisemitic.”

One horrified Labour member in Brighton told the JC: “It is astonishing that Amanda has attempted to double down on her call for Brighton Labour members to mount a protest outside a synagogue.

“She may not be in the party any more, but most of the people on the Brighton Momentum forum still are.

“The concerning thing is how her latest remarks received not the slightest bit of condemnation.”

Last year, Ms Bishop had prompted fury when she called for the march to a synagogue to protest at the suspension from the party of local council candidate Alex Braithwaite.

Miss Braithwaite was suspended in April 2019  over her posts on social media.

One such post claimed that Israel was “giving African migrants 90 days to leave the country so they don’t effect [sic] Israeli bloodline. They must leave or they will be jailed or murdered”.

Returning to discuss the issue on the Brighton Momentum forum on Sunday , Ms Bishop said: “I’m also an atheist and respect religious people but I cannot abide some who preach hatred  in the name of their God.”

She claimed that while living in South Africa she “had a long battle with a priest of the local church.”

Ms Bishop added that the confrontation, which took place “in the middle of the 1990s”, had emerged after the priest made racist remarks about black people.

She said: “My husband had to restrain me from physically assaulting him.”

Asked about her violent reaction, she told another Momentum activist: “I wanted to slap his face, Val.”

The discussion had begun after Warren Morgan, a councillor who quit Labour in February 2019 over antisemitism under Jeremy Corbyn, wrote a blog titled ‘Does Labour In Brighton Have An Antisemitism Problem?’

The article, written in response to antisemitism allegations among local Labour councillors, included a list of people whom Mr Morgan said needed to be approached over the issue.

Ms Bishop was suspended in April 2019 after local MP Lloyd Russell-Moyle claimed he had reported her to the party over her synagogue comments.

Speaking on behalf of the Sussex Jewish Representative Council last April, Fiona Sharpe said: “It is totally unacceptable for anyone to suggest marching on a synagogue as a form of protest.

“Change the word synagogue to mosque and watch Ms Bishop and her supporters take to social media in righteous indignation. Why is ok to demonstrate such naked aggression towards the Jewish community?”

Sussex Police investigated the comments made by Ms Bishop  last year but said they did not consider them to be a criminal offence.