Labour’s election candidate for West Dunbartonshire has become the latest politician to issue an apology over anti-semitic comments after sharing a message about BBC reporter Nick Robinson’s Jewish heritage.
Jean Anne Mitchell said she made a “genuine mistake” when forwarding a post about Mr Robinson’s ‘media bias’ in a private WhatsApp group during last week’s leaders debate between Jermey Corbyn and Boris Johnson.
Mitchell posted the comments in a group set up for Labour candidates standing in the election, however the post was screenshotted and shared on social media.
READ MORE: Falkirk Labour candidate dropped over anti-semitic Facebook posts
The original post, shared by an unnamed individual, contained references to Mr Robinson’s German-Jewish grandparents who fled to Shanghai in the 1930s.
It stated: “That makes him Jewish.”
The post continued: “At University, he was president of the Oxford University Conservative Association in 1985. So not at all biased then.”
Mitchell later “unreservedly apologised” on Twitter, adding she had “not read it fully.”
In a statement posted on social media, she wrote: "I only glanced at the opening part about media bias and did not see the antisemitic rhetoric beneath that.
"Claiming that someone's Jewish heritage means they have some kind of agenda is clearly antisemitic and unacceptable.
"When I read the full content, I was mortified.
"These were neither my words not my views and I deeply regret this genuine mistake.
READ MORE: Labour accused of failing to investigate antisemitism cases
"I have informed the person who sent this to me that the message is extremely offensive and I want nothing further to do with them.”
Previously, Scottish Labour was forced to drop an election candidate for Falkirk over anti-semitic posts on an old Facebook acoount.
Last month, it was confirmed Safia Ali would no longer be representing the party in the election over comments made on the social media platform.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel