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Candidate for Labour deputy leader asks members to 'distance themselves' from those booted out

Rosena Allin-Khan said a comment by expelled party member Tony Greenstein was 'disgusting'

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Labour deputy leadership candidate Rosena Allin-Khan has told Labour members to “distance themselves” from activists that have been expelled from the Labour Party for “abhorrent” views.

Dr Allin-Khan, speaking to the Jewish News, was responding to former Labour member Tony Greenstein’s claim that supporting both Israel and the Palestinians was similar to supporting Nazis and Jews.

Dr Allin-Khan said that the comments were “disgusting” and that he had since been expelled from the party.

Greenstein was expelled from Labour in February 2018 for three breaches of its regulations including for “offensive comments online” and for mocking the “phrase ‘final solution”.

Dr Allin-Khan said that she met Greenstein while leaftletting in Brighton, and that “it wasn’t pleasant.”  

“It doesn’t help that people who hold such views, who have been expelled from the Labour Party, continue to assert that they are Labour activists – when the opposite is true.”

The Tooting MP had worked with Palestinians in 2009 as a humanitarian aid doctor, and said that “I know what they are suffering, I know it’s an injustice and I take a stand without being an antisemite.”

Greenstein has rejected Dr Allin-Khan’s claims on Twitter, saying that she had “congratulated” him on “wearing a Palestinian badge” when they met and writing that she had “stuttered 2 find an answer” when he quizzed her on her signature of the Board of Deputies pledges to fight antisemitism.

He added that for Dr Allin-Khan “to support both the Zionists and the Palestinians – it’s like claiming to support Black Africans whilst supporting Apartheid or the Jews and the Nazis – you can’t support the oppressor and oppressed at the same time”.

Dr Allin-Khan is campaigning to be Labour’s deputy leader and is on the ballot that has been sent to Labour members and supporters alongside Angela Rayner, Ian Murray and Richard Burgon.

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