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| Labour suspends Jackie Walker over Holocaust comments | Labour suspends Jackie Walker over Holocaust comments |
| (35 minutes later) | |
| Momentum vice-chair Jackie Walker has been suspended from Labour over controversial comments she made at a party training event. | Momentum vice-chair Jackie Walker has been suspended from Labour over controversial comments she made at a party training event. |
| Leaked footage showed the outspoken campaigner saying she had not found a definition of antisemitism she could work with. | Leaked footage showed the outspoken campaigner saying she had not found a definition of antisemitism she could work with. |
| The footage also showed her questioning why Holocaust Memorial Day was not more wide-ranging to include other genocides. | The footage also showed her questioning why Holocaust Memorial Day was not more wide-ranging to include other genocides. |
| Labour said it did not comment on individual party memberships but it is understood Walker has now been suspended. | Labour said it did not comment on individual party memberships but it is understood Walker has now been suspended. |
| Labour MP John Mann called Walker’s comments “unacceptable in a modern political party” by any standard. | Labour MP John Mann called Walker’s comments “unacceptable in a modern political party” by any standard. |
| But former London mayor Ken Livingstone defended some of Walker’s comments, saying “there’s a difference between ignorance and antisemitism”. | But former London mayor Ken Livingstone defended some of Walker’s comments, saying “there’s a difference between ignorance and antisemitism”. |
| He said most people were unaware that Holocaust Memorial Day commemorated other genocides besides those perpetrated by the Nazis. | He said most people were unaware that Holocaust Memorial Day commemorated other genocides besides those perpetrated by the Nazis. |
| “I suspect you’ll find the majority of people in Britain didn’t know the Holocaust Memorial Day had been widened to include others,” Livingstone told the Press Association. “There’s a difference between ignorance and antisemitism.” | “I suspect you’ll find the majority of people in Britain didn’t know the Holocaust Memorial Day had been widened to include others,” Livingstone told the Press Association. “There’s a difference between ignorance and antisemitism.” |
| Walker, who along with her partner is Jewish, previously released a statement apologising for any offence. In an interview with Channel 4 News, she also questioned why Holocaust Memorial Day doesn’t mark genocides that occurred prior to the Nazis. | |
| When she was asked whether she had considered resigning given the outrage among some Jewish groups, Walker said: “Some other prominent Jewish groups, of which I’m a member, think a very different thing. What we have to look at when we’re talking about this subject, particularly at the moment, is the political differences that are underlying this as well.” | |
| She said whomever leaked the footage from a Labour party antisemitism training event “had malicious intent in their mind”. She also said she was anti-Zionist rather than antisemitic, adding: “I think Zionism is a political ideology, and like any political ideology, some people will be supportive and some people won’t be supportive of it. That’s a very different thing.” | She said whomever leaked the footage from a Labour party antisemitism training event “had malicious intent in their mind”. She also said she was anti-Zionist rather than antisemitic, adding: “I think Zionism is a political ideology, and like any political ideology, some people will be supportive and some people won’t be supportive of it. That’s a very different thing.” |
| The steering group of Momentum, which arose from the campaign to get Jeremy Corbyn elected as Labour leader last year, meets on Monday. A spokesman for the group said that it would be seeking to remove Walker as its vice-chair. |