The Labour council hopeful who made a series of antisemitic statements about Jews and Hitler on social media is to be reinterviewed by the party ahead of the final candidate selection process.
Nasreen Khan – a former member of George Galloway’s Respect party - was placed on a two-person shortlist for a safe Labour ward in Bradford.
But the emergence of Ms Khan’s posts – which included one on Facebook saying: “What have the Jews done good in this world?”, and another saying: “Jews have reaped the rewards of playing victims” and that there were “worse people than Hitler in this world” – caused uproar.
Susan Hinchcliffe, the leader of the Labour run Bradford Council said:“No-one who has seen these comments from 2012 can fail to be appalled by them. Ms Kahn herself appears to accept this judgement. Such comments have no place in our society.”
A spokesperson from the Labour Against Antisemitism group said: “Yorkshire and Humber Labour have some serious questions to answer here.
“Nasreen Khan's antisemitic comments about Hitler were made some years ago and were in the public domain, as were other issues such as her criminal record and her links to Hamas. Yet just last week she made it to a shortlist of two to become the Labour Party candidate for a safe seat on Bradford city council.
“Did Yorkshire and Humber Labour know about Ms Khan before she was shortlisted? Either they knew, and did nothing, in which case they have made a horrendous error of judgment, or they didn't know and are appallingly incompetent.
The group called on party leader Jeremy Corbyn to “to take serious action to show a zero-tolerance policy to race hate in his party”.
Ms Khan has apologised for her comments, saying in a statement: “I accept fully that it was inappropriate and unacceptable.
“I have travelled a long way since then and learned so much. I profoundly regret the comments I made in 2012 and any offence they caused.”
But Rudi Leavor, chairman of Bradford Synagogue, called the comments "odious" and added that in his view, Ms Khan was not a suitable candidate to be a councillor.
“Her comments from a few years ago were inexcusable, but she has acknowledged they were wrong,” he said.
Final candidate selection in the Little Horton ward is due to be made on Friday.
