SCOTTISH Labour leader Richard Leonard has become embroiled in a damaging row over an internal investigation into a councillor who shared allegedly anti-Semitic material online.
Emails to Leonard reveal the anger of a member of the public who complained about Dundee councillor George McIrvine, who shared a banking conspiracy theory on Facebook in April but has not been suspended.
Howard Barclay told the Sunday Herald he is dismayed at the “delay” in Labour resolving a complaint made three months ago: “Richard Leonard has said there is no place for anti-Semitism in Scotland, and yet when it comes to investigating a clear case that arose it is swept under the carpet.”
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UK Labour has been dogged by claims the party has been soft on anti-Semitism and slow to deal with complaints about anti-Jewish comments.
The row deepened after Labour’s governing National Executive Committee (NEC) refused to adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s definition of anti-Semitism, despite the code being accepted by public bodies.
After a fiery debate at the NEC, the party agreed to a further review, but the controversy has been a PR disaster for Labour.
Scottish Labour encountered its own difficulties three months ago after Dundee councillor McIrvine, a left-winger, shared an image posted by another individual on military strikes in Syria, which included a reference to the Rothschild Bank.
The Facebook post stated: “There are only nine countries left in the world without a Rothschild central bank: Russia, China, Iceland, Cuba, Syria, Iran, Venezuela, North Korea and Hungary. Isn’t it funny we are always at war with these countries?”
Hostility towards the Jewish Rothschild family, which owns the bank, is regarded as an anti-Semitic trope, but McIrvine said at the time he had been commenting on banking in general and removed the post.
“The point I was making was about the banks’ influence on the world. There were no racist undertones to it," he told his local newspaper.
Image: the Facebook post at the centre of the investigation
Picture (from Dundee Council website): George McIrvine
Barclay forwarded the material to Leonard and called on him to “take immediate action to suspend and investigate” McIrvine for "posting anti-Semitic imagery".
Days later, Barclay emailed Leonard again about the lack of a response. The leader replied: “Apologies for the tardiness but I forwarded this immediately to the Scottish Labour Party General Secretary for action on Wednesday.”
This month, Barclay resumed the email-based conversation with Leonard: “I sincerely hope the 'tardiness' you speak of wasn’t simply a device to delay the investigation so rules can be changed in the Labour Party to allow anti-Semitic imagery being disseminated.”
Leonard responded: “There is zero tolerance of anti-Semitism by me and no party rule changes to alter that.”
In an email to a figure in the UK Labour complaints team, Barclay revealed his frustration at the delay: “This is not a complaint about a train being delayed, but about an elected Councillor of your Party sharing allegedly anti-Semitic conspiracy memes depicting the supposed Jewish control of international finance.
“You may have understanding that this type of propaganda being promolgated [sic] was not an unusual phenomenon in Weimar Germany before its demise."
He also received an email from Scottish Labour General Secretary Brian Roy two weeks ago: “Your complaint is under live investigation and someone from our complaints team will update you on the outcome.”
Barclay told this newspaper: “I fear the delay is related to the UK Labour Party inventing their own definition of anti-Semitism to allow it to thrive unchallenged inside their party – meaning this case will now be dropped.
“Scottish Labour has an opportunity to take a stand and show to people of Scotland that it does accept the IHRA definition of anti-Semitism, that is stands with our Jewish community and that it does not just follow diktats from London, especially on something as fundamental to Scotland’s value system as this.”
A party insider said the fact that McIrvine had not been suspended was "both consistent and proportionate to other similar cases".
A spokesman for Leonard said: “Richard Leonard has been clear throughout his time as leader of the party that he has zero tolerance of – and that there is no room for anti-Semitism or any other form of racism in the Scottish Labour Party. While this individual case remains under a live investigation it would not be appropriate to comment further."
Meanwhile, Labour members in Eastwood last week wrote to Scottish Labour's governing body asking the party to break with UK colleagues by implementing the IHRA definition of anti-Semitism.
Ben Procter, the chair of the local party, said it appeared Labour “no longer wish to listen to those who understand anti-Semitism best – the Jewish community.”
He added: “While there is inaction on a UK level, we in Scotland have a duty to act.”
Scottish Tory MSP Adam Tomkins said: "It is high time that Scottish Labour got to grips with the problem, rather than their current approach which has been to kick it into the long grass. A good place to start for Scottish Labour would be to accept the International Holocaust's Memorial Alliance's guidelines on identifying anti-Jewish abuse and I would encourage them to reverse their position on this.”
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