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Clegg response to David Ward is 'fig leaf'

February 28, 2013 13:10

By

Jennifer Lipman,

Jennifer Lipman

1 min read

The punishment handed to MP David Ward by the Liberal Democrats over his comments on "the Jews" represents "a pedestrian and lacklustre response to what amounts to antisemitism at the heart of Westminster", according to Jewish community leaders.

Jewish Leadership Council chief executive Jeremy Newmark and Board of Deputies chief executive Jon Benjamin said Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg's decision to order Mr Ward to meet members of the Lib Dem Friends of Israel group was "a fig leaf".

They accused Mr Clegg of "expressing concern to communal leaders about antisemitism in private, but failing to step up and confront it in public. We cannot accept that scenario".

Karen Pollock, chief executive of the Holocaust Educational Trust, said the situation had been "mishandled" and "Holocaust equivocation and antisemitism are not being taken seriously".

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