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Labour MP linked to website alleged to have published antisemitic content

Grahame Morris is a founding director of Palestine Deep Dive

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A North-East Labour MP has been revealed as a director of a website alleged to have published antisemitic material.

Research by Labour Against Antisemitism found that Grahame Morris, who represents the Easington constituency in County Durham, is a founding director of Palestine Deep Dive.

The Mail on Sunday reported that Mr Morris had confirmed he was a trustee of PDD – described as an “education company” publishing media reports on Israel and Palestine - and that he had failed to declare his directorship to parliamentary authorities.

Mr Morris said that although a director of PDD’s board of trustees, he was not involved in its editorial decisions. He apologised for not registering his directorship in the Commons.

The MoS also reported that last May, PDD published a blog by former South African politician Ronnie Kasrils claiming “Israel’s racism” had "let loose the pogroms so reminiscent of Czarist times and Kristallnacht in Germany, 1938”.

Pink Floyd’s Roger Waters is a PDD supporter and PDD had to apologise for claims in a 2020 interview that BBC’s Panorama programme had helped run a “smear campaign” against Labour with its 2019 investigation into antisemitism within the party. The apology accepted that “some opinions” advanced during the interview about the BBC, the programme and the journalist, John Ware, were “incorrect and have caused personal offence”.

Calling for the whip to be withdrawn from the MP, Labour Against Antisemitism’s Alex Hearn said: “It is difficult to see how Mr Morris can justify his involvement with this website.

“We continue to believe that Keir Starmer’s statement in September that Labour had closed the door on antisemitism was premature.”

The PDD maintains that it has not “knowingly” published material that might be considered antisemitic. Were this ever to be the case, “it would be removed”.

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