A man who signed a petition in support of an activist who claimed Jews “were the chief financiers of the slave trade” has been re-elected to Labour’s top disciplinary body, the National Constitutional Committee (NCC), which is meant to deal with antisemitism cases.

Stephen Marks, a member of the far-left group pro-Corbyn Jewish Voice for Labour, had been on a two-person slate of names put forward by the Campaign for Labour Party Democracy. 

In 2017 Mr Marks signed a petition support of suspended activist Jackie Walker, who said that “many prominent Jews were chief financiers of the slave trade”. Walker was expelled from the party two years later.

Mr Marks last year shared a petition in support of David Watson, who was suspended from the party in 2016 after the JC reported he allegedly shared claims on Facebook that compared Mossad with the Nazis and accusing Israel of genocide against the Palestinians.

Referring to Mr Watson, Mr Marks wrote: “It is cases like this which ‘bring the party into disrepute’. Those responsible are the ones who should be suspended!”

At an Oxford and District Labour Party meeting earlier this month, Mr Marks reportedly called for the anti-racism watchdog investigating the party over antisemitism claims, the Equalities and Human Rights Commission, to be abolished. 

Linda Smith, Oxford City Council Deputy leader, wrote that Mr Marks had also claimed at the meeting that “Labour's antisemitism problem was a fabrication of Israeli propagandists and arms dealers terrified of a Corbyn government”. 

After Mr Marks was initially elected to the NCC, the Board of Deputies called him an "antisemitism denier”.