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Labour antisemitism Panorama 'a dishonest hatchet job', says motion proposed by filmmaker Ken Loach

' It disgraced the name of Panorama and exposed the bias endemic within the BBC,' says motion that went before Bath Labour

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Filmmaker Ken Loach has proposed a Labour motion attacking the BBC Panorama episode on Labour antisemitism, calling it a "hatchet job".

The motion was proposed and passed at a meeting of the Bath Labour Party on Monday after last week's broadcast about whistleblowers' attacking the influence Jeremy Corbyn's allies have assumed over complaints of antisemitism against Labour members.

The programme has become epicentre of a huge row within the party, after the leadership attacked the whistleblowers as "disaffected", triggering legal threats and one union offering its Labour staff members legal advice. 

The Bath motion said: “This was a dishonest hatchet job with potentially undemocratic consequences. It disgraced the name of Panorama and exposed the bias endemic within the BBC.”

It also demanded the BBC broadcast a follow-up of “similar length and prominence” to address their concerns.

Joe Rayment, who was a councillor in Bath until May, tweeted a picture of the motion, calling it "absolutely disgraceful", adding it was "denying the lived experience of Jewish people in favour of blind loyalty".

Former councillor Adam Langleben, who has quit Labour over its antisemitism crisis, said he was "astonished" Mr Loach, a longtime supporter of Mr Corbyn, was actually a Labour member, adding he thought he was "just one of the cranks still outside of it".

 

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