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Labour MP Lloyd Russell-Moyle withdraws invitation to representative of antisemitic group

'Further investigation' prompted him to drop invite to representative of a group with the slogan 'God is great, death to America, death to Israel, curse the Jews, victory to Islam'

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A Labour MP who invited a representative of an antisemitic Yemeni military group to Parliament has reportedly cancelled the invitation after strong condemnation from Jewish groups.

Lloyd Russell-Moyle, the MP for Brighton Kemptown, had invited Ahmed Alshami, a spokesperson for the Houthi movement in Yemen, to speak at a Stop the War Coalition event he was hosting on Tuesday night at Westminster.

The Houthi movement’s official slogan is “God is great, death to America, death to Israel, curse the Jews, victory to Islam”.

Responding to the news of the planned event yesterday, Amanda Bowman, Board of Deputies Vice President, described the invitation as “utterly unacceptable” and called on the Labour MP to “immediately disavow his support for this event”.

Meanwhile, the Jewish Leadership Council described how “the Houthis drove the Jews of Yemen out of their homes, destroying the ancient community.

“The Houthi flag and slogan says ‘a curse on the Jews’. Peace in Yemen is vital, but nobody should roll out the red carpet for a Houthi spokesperson without challenging his antisemitism.”

On Sunday, Mr Russell-Moyle responded angrily to a fellow Labour MP, Graham Jones, who had criticised his invitation to Mr Alshami, calling his colleague a “tit” and an “illegal arms sales apologist”. The Brighton MP described Mr Alshami as “part of the delegation to the UN process.”

On Monday evening, as reported by the Sun, Mr Russell-Moyle withdrew his invitation, saying that he had “agreed to host the Stop The War (Coalition) briefing around Yemen.

“Stop the War arranged the speaker but on further investigation of the speaker it has become clear that it would be inappropriate to give this person a public platform in a public meeting.

"I therefore have informed Stop The War that they should remove this speaker from the event or it will be cancelled."

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