THE Labour official forced out of her top job in the party after defending a candidate who said the holocaust was a hoax, has claimed the anti-Semitism row is a conspiracy theory being “stirred up” to undermine Jeremy Corbyn.
Christine Shawcroft, who was the chairwoman of the disputes panel on Labour’s ruling NEC, took to social media yesterday to hit out at her critics.
She insisted that she was “not a holocaust denier” and said she would never have knowingly supported a holocaust denier. Shawcroft also rejected calls, made by 39 MPs and peers, for her to be suspended by the NEC.
She wrote: “This whole row is being stirred up to attack Jeremy, as we all know. That someone who has spent his whole life fighting racism in all its forms should find himself being accused of not doing enough to counter it, absolutely beggars belief.”
Shawcroft had initially questioned the treatment of Alan Bull, a council candidate for the party in Peterborough, who’d been suspended after sharing a, completely nonsensical, article headlined, “International Red Cross report confirms the Holocaust of 6m Jews is a hoax”.
After learning of Bull’s suspension, the left-winger emailed allies on the NEC calling for it to be lifted, suggesting “elements of Peterborough Labour party” had “political reasons” for wanting Bull suspended.
She also claimed the post had been “taken completely out of context”.
Yesterday, she admitted that she hadn’t actually seen the image.
“I had not seen the appalling and abhorrent post which was shared, and if I had seen it I would not have sent the supportive email.”
Labour MP Peter Kyle tweeted: “A year ago some of us quietly went to see Jeremy, warning him about anti-Semitism. We begged him to act. Christine Shawcroft just said ‘This whole row is being stirred up to attack Jeremy’.
“This row exists because of their failure to act, not because some of us confront racism.”
Labour peer Robert Winston, said his party leader had “encouraged and endorsed” anti-Semites and that hostility to Jewish people has “infected the Labour Party so it’s become endemic”.
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