Labour member’s slur on Jewish donor brings suspension, as party acts against ‘thousands’

Mr Flanagan did not describe Mr Foster by name, however, when urging his removal, referring to him instead as “the Jewish millionaire”.

In another e-mail sent by Mr Flanagan, he blamed the “Israeli Mossad Organised Collection” for “orchestrating the attack upon the members’ choice Jeremy Corbyn”.

Mr Flanagan had previously compared a Jewish Labour councillor, Phil Rosenberg, to Josef Goebbels, in comments made on Holocaust Memorial Day this year. He refused to apologise when asked to do so.

Mr Rosenberg said Mr Flanagan had been “repeatedly abusive to me, other councillors and other Labour Party members. Too often, his language crossed the line in to clear antisemitism.

“I initially tried to point this out to him in a collegiate, comradely way, but he was impervious to this and so I had to take more formal route.

“The result gives me no pleasure. I would much rather that he had acknowledged and learned from his earlier, unacceptable behaviour, but he would not. In the end, this had to be the right decision by the party.”

The suspension came as leaked documents showed Labour had suspended thousands of members for using racist or threatening language.

Among the abuse was, it is reported, claims Jews were “owning the media” and use of the word “Zio”.

That term was singled out for criticism by Shami Chakrabarti in her inquiry into antisemitism in the party.