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Labour accused of dismissing 'serious cases of antisemitism' for failing to suspend councillor

Councillor shared posts promoting Rothschild conspiracy theories

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Labour has been accused of continuing to “dismiss or ignore serious cases of antisemitism” after it emerged it failed to suspend a councillor who shared posts on Facebook about Rothschild global control and compared Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to Hitler.

PoliticsHome reported that Ioan Jones, a Labour councillor and former Mayor of Shrewsbury, who was placed “under investigation” in July after his activities on Facebook were revealed, was never actually suspended from the party.

One image Mr Jones on his Facebook page showed Adolf Hitler with the quote “we are the master race” and Benjamin Netanyahu with the quote “we are God’s chosen people” which asked below: “What’s the difference?”

Another image shared by Cllr Jones promoted the conspiracy theory of the Rothschild family’s supposed control over the world, claiming they “own nearly every central bank in the world… your news, your media, your oil and your government.”

He also shared an article which claimed that the Labour party’s antisemitism crisis had been “manufactured by the Israel lobby.”

Euan Philipps, spokesperson for the Labour Against Anti-Semitism group, said: "Councillor Ioan Jones should have been suspended as soon as these posts came to light.

"They appear to be quite clearly antisemitic in nature and it is concerning that immediate action wasn’t taken by [Labour general secretary] Jennie Formby and her compliance team."

"Unfortunately, this is not the only example where Labour has failed to take action against alleged racism by its members. We have recorded over 100 examples of serious cases of anti-Semitism which have been dismissed or ignored by Labour over the last six months...

"Jeremy Corbyn’s rhetoric of swifter action on Labour antisemitism rings hollow in light of his continued inability to address this ongoing crisis.

"It is a failure that only further underlines the institutional nature of this issue, and the incompetence of Mr Corbyn in dealing with it.”

A Labour spokesperson told PoliticsHome the party would not comment on individual cases but that an investigation into the matter was ongoing.

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