MP Smeeth again makes farcical anti-Semitism accusations against Corbyn supporters
![Ruth Smeeth MP walked out of a press conference for the launch of an independent review into antisemitism in the Labour party. Her claim that she had been subjected to anti-Semitism and accusations of being in a 'media conspiracy' were later proved to be false [Image: (Unattributed)].](https://voxpoliticalonline.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/160902-Ruth-Smeeth.png)
Ruth Smeeth MP walked out of a press conference for the launch of an independent review into antisemitism in the Labour party. Her claim that she had been subjected to anti-Semitism and accusations of being in a ‘media conspiracy’ were later proved to be false [Image: (Unattributed)].
Ms Smeeth had a Momentum campaigner kicked out of the Labour Party after an incident at the launch of Shami Chakrabarti’s report into alleged anti-Semitism in the Labour party on June 30.
A Telegraph reporter had handed her a leaflet Marc Wadsworth had been distributing, allegedly (I haven’t seen it) accusing Labour MPs who had rebelled against Mr Corbyn of treachery, and asked her (we’re told) for a comment.
Mr Wadsworth’s comment was: “I saw that the Telegraph handed a copy of a press release to Ruth Smeeth MP so you can see who is working hand in hand. If you look around this room, how many African Caribbean and Asian people are there? We need to get our house in order.”
He is a person of colour himself and says he had no idea Ms Smeeth is Jewish. But she had him booted from the party for anti-Semitism.
What part of his remark seems anti-Semitic, to you?
Now the same MP is accusing Mr Corbyn’s hundreds of thousands of supporters of anti-Semitism on equally flimsy grounds.
It seems she received a death threat via Facebook, on or around July 13. It was posted anonymously. There is no evidence in the public arena to suggest that it was written by a supporter of Jeremy Corbyn, or even a member of the Labour Party (although I stand ready to be corrected if any such material comes to light in the future).
Her Facebook page contains no posts for the period between June 28 and August 30.
But she is determined to accuse Jeremy Corbyn, as though the actions of people who are perfectly capable of making their own decisions are somehow his fault.
How can he “name and shame his supporters who are perpetuating” – I think she means perpetrating – “this hate” when there is no reason to suggest that any of them have done anything wrong?
It was the same with Jess Phillips and her panic room. She said it was necessary because she was getting death threats from Corbyn supporters but – and again, correct me if I’m wrong – the only actual threat to kill was from someone in Germany.
And there’s the alleged brick through the alleged Wallasey constituency office window (it was actually a window onto a stairwell in a building shared by the local Labour Party with several other organisations) that Angela Eagle swore was thrown by Corbyn supporters – and again, we’re still waiting for evidence.
After the incident at the inquiry launch, logically the end to the matter should have been Ms Smeeth apologising for her overreaction and fabrication, with a possible addition that she is not “hand in hand” with the right-wing media, if she feels the need, as a previous article stated.
But the latest Guardian report repeats the falsehoods she was reported as stating at the time: “‘I was verbally attacked by a Momentum activist and Jeremy Corbyn supporter who used traditional antisemitic slurs [he didn’t] to attack me for being part of a ‘media conspiracy’ [he never said those words, so it is wrong of her to put them in inverted commas]. It is beyond belief that someone could come to the launch of a report on antisemitism in the Labour party and espouse such vile conspiracy theories about Jewish people, which were ironically highlighted as such in Ms Chakrabarti’s report, while the leader of my own party stood by and did absolutely nothing.’ [It is unlikely that Mr Corbyn realised what was happening at the time. He commented later.]
“After calling on Corbyn to resign following the incident, Smeeth was subject to thousands of abusive messages on social media.” This is unverified. How many were actually abusive – which in this case means “cruel and violent treatment” – and how many were critical?
Bear in mind that it seems Ms Smeeth made a deliberately false representation of what happened that was debunked the very same day – by This Blog, among others.
People like Ms Smeeth are desperate to stop Mr Corbyn’s impending victory in the Labour leadership election with any trumped-up smear they can manage.
They complain about adverse attention they have attracted and want you to think it is all one-way – from Corbyn supporters against them – but This Writer is one of many pro-Corbyn commentators who has received shockingly abusive communications, simply for pointing out the inconsistencies in their stories.
So, there has been no proof of anti-Semitism or homophobia against this MP by Corbyn supporters. That part of it seems to be a product of an overactive imagination.
Police are investigating an antisemitic and homophobic online rant targeting Ruth Smeeth, a Labour MP.
Officers from the Metropolitan police counter terrorism command are investigating the threat in conjunction with the parliamentary and diplomatic protection command, following the anonymous 1,000-word attack on the Stoke-on-Trent North MP, who is Jewish.
Facebook staff have been asked to help identify the person who posted the comments.
The Met said allegations of malicious communication and threats to kill made via social media were reported to the force on 13 July. “That investigation is ongoing. At this stage, whilst there have been no arrests, a number of lines of inquiry are being actively pursued.”
It is understood that police have increased security for Smeeth’s constituency office and homes, including panic buttons and CCTV cameras. Smeeth told the Guardian: “I refuse to be intimidated or scared by anyone who resorts to this appalling racist and threatening abuse and they alone are responsible for their actions. But let’s be clear: as leader of the official opposition and the head of my party, Jeremy Corbyn has a responsibility to lead and that means more then telling MPs to ignore abuse.
“He needs to name and shame his supporters who are perpetuating this hate and make it clear they are not welcome in our party if they have such abhorrent views.”
Source: Police investigate antisemitic and homophobic online abuse targeting MP | Politics | The Guardian
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The S*n article on this story shows an extract of what it claims was “delivered to her [Ruth Smeeth] in a warped 1,000 word rant via a Facebook message”.
A search for the words contained in this extract brings up a blog post dated 9th July, which is indeed offensive, homophobic and antisemitic. Whether or not this was delivered to Ruth Smeeth is uncertain; I have not been able to find it on Facebook, and if so, it may have been sent by someone other than the author.
The S*n states that a complaint was made on 13th July; no arrests have been made; and an investigation is ongoing.
It seems that this story was brought out at an opportune time as part of the ongoing efforts to smear Jeremy Corbyn (who is, of course, in no way responsible for what anyone chooses to write online) and also to smear those who support him.
Oh, right, so not even Facebook?
Do you have a link for the blog post? I won’t be publishing it but I’d like to see it and I don’t want to visit that rag’s website!
http://politicoacademic.blogspot.co.uk/2016/07/england-delusional-society-run-by.html?m=1
Wow!
Highly unattractive stuff, that.
Nothing in there to suggest Labour Party membership, though. He mentions “lovers and supporters” of the Labour Party but that’s all.
I reckon it’s just someone out to cause trouble.
Yes, I know how you feel; I really
had to force myself to click on the link?
Another Mccarthy witch hunt! after the investigation by the police! All info should be made available to parliament so all mps including JC himself can see exactly what’s been written! The Internet is full of trolls and some are paid to troll so it could be another set up!
The Shun link won’t let you copy and paste the full tirade from its link. It reads like an angry Britain First type individual you don’t usually find among Labour supporters, even under it’s most right-leaning years. It sounds more like a UKIP supporter on steroids, and is full of the kind of comment that was a regular feature on many referendum comment threads during the run-up to Brexit, and even then, you’d find the commenters were not Labour supporters but were nearly always challenged by Labour supporters. However, that’s just an impression and not evidence.
https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/1712291/counter-terror-cops-hunt-foul-mouthed-jeremy-corbyn-supporter-who-launched-a-vile-tirade-threatening-to-hang-moderate-labour-mp-ruth-smeeth/
No it’s definitely not a Britain First type. I read other parts of the blog and the guy’s Twitter feed etc. I think he’s some kind of Black nationalist. Says he has a German partner and also posts in German and Welsh. A lot of stuff about Barbados, Africa and Zionism. He’s posted anti-nazi stuff on nazi websites.
Jeremy Corbyn is not anti-Semitic. The problem is that a lot of right-wing Blairites in the party happen to be Jewish is all and Jeremy’s supporters happen to be anti-them. That’s the truth.
I believe that this is what is being now called “cry-bullying.”
It was mentioned decades ago in a book called “games people play” by Eric Berne. The game is the one called rapo, where the perpetrator of the abuse abuses the victim by pretending that she has been raped, but it is all a malicious lie, said to cause trouble for the victim, perhaps job loss, loss of reputation, expulsion from politics etc.
The obvious ploy here is to crush Corbyn supporters by a McCarthy style malicious campaign of hate, and the ruse is to pretend that it is the victims who are “abusing” people. But it is all lies intended to either expel them from the Labour Party or to stop the public from supporrting them.
It was done in the 1980s to crush the Left. The problem here however is that the was a tiny element of truth to the campaign against Militant, whcih made the campaign so dangerous for the genuine left. It killed them off and left the Labour Party in the hands of right wing neoliberals, who continued withThatchers privatisations, light touch bank regulation and Majors PFI. It all helped to cause the crisis.
Therefore it is essential that we warn the public and remain vigilant ourselves, and keep in mind that it was the LEFT who buttered our bread in the past. It was the 1945 and 1960s leftwing governments that gave us the NHS, full employment, socila security, council houses, the open university, and many more.
We should make sure that we counter every attempt to demonise the left for this reason.
I really am sick and disgusted with the “Jewish sympathy card” being played time and again when no such equivalent is available to the victims of many years of other racial abuse. All this “anti-semitism” claptrap is doing is highlighting the fact that certain Jewish people expect a higher degree of respect than others and want “special” treatment. We’d all like special treatment but we don’t expect it and it is breeding resentment against Jewish exceptionalism, quite the reverse of what the Jewish agitators were hoping for.
Many people who are suffering real and not imagined abuse are becoming really resentful of a sect in our society(the guilty and innocent) who seem to expect better treatment than others as though only they have that right. It would seem they have not remembered the story of the boy who cried wolf.
A case of shooting oneself in both feet.
Hi Mike, I sent you a tweet earlier. Did you mean to publish the blog?… it’s not clear that the author of the blog actually sent it to Ruth Smeeth, and as awful as it is, I don’t think the attention he’ll receive will be helpful as he seems like a vulnerable individual.
I’ve spoken to Staffs and Met police, the Independent Press Standards Organisation and the S*n, (who were TOTAL C&@£S as you might imagine, bleurgh!)
Let me know what you think.
I was never going to publish that person’s article – I just wanted to see it for myself. It seems practically unreadable, and you’re right that we don’t know that he sent it on.
I’m referring to the link (above)
I had no idea that she was Jewish, just as I had no idea that Angela Eagle was lesbian. Who did? How is this Mr Corbyn’s fault and how is it that his “followers” seem to know these intimate details of these MPs? This is beyond ridiculous! Also, why is it that Mr Corbyn’s supporters seem to have this preoccupation with anti-Semitism, the only form of racism, that I know, that has a name? Why are the Corbynistas not full of hatred for blacks Africans/ Caribbeans, Indians, Chinese, Japanese etc.? Why only the Jews? Or have I missed something?
Corbyn supporters don’t hate Jews either.
It has been suggested that a large number of Mr Corbyn’s critics in the Parliamentary Labour Party are Jewish and they are pleading anti-Semitism because it is something they can relate to themselves.
It has a lot to do with his pro-Palestinian stance I think.
His pro-peace stance, you mean?
Well, everyone is “pro-peace”, aren’t they? The settler movement is in favour of peace on the basis that the Palestinians go and live elsewhere, for example. JC has particularly supported Palestinian national rights when others either pay lip service or demonise them as terrorists. As others have said, when you’re in a position of privilege, equality looks like a threat.
No, everyone is not “pro-peace”. The example you quote is a good one, as obviously these settlers won’t accept peace until they get what they want. That’s not “pro-peace”, it’s “pro-war”, “pro-aggression”, “pro-violence”. Mr Corbyn will defend Palestinians who are subjected to aggression, sure – but his main aim is to prevent bloodshed.
I’m pretty sure he respects their right to struggle for their legitimate aspirations in fact, but maybe I’m just projecting my own views there. In any case, he doesn’t favour the Israelis, which is the point I was making. He supports the recognition of a Palestinian state immediately, for example, which puts him at odds with most of the Labour Friends of Israel crowd who have been among his most vicious critics.
He favours peace, and the right of everyone to self-determination. As long as the Israeli government opposes that in its policy towards Palestine, he’ll oppose them on it. It’s not an ideological opposition to Israel in and of itself, as you (and many others) are trying to suggest.
When did I ever suggest that? You have a very vivid imagination…
You said it in your previous comment: “He doesn’t favour the Israelis, which is the point I was making”.
I do have a vivid imagination, but none was required in this instance.
Yes. “Doesn’t favour” = takes an even-handed approach.
Not in the context of what you have said before, about Mr Corbyn being “pro-Palestinian”. If he’s “pro-Palestinian” and “doesn’t favour” Israel – according to you – then – according to you – he is in opposition to Israel.
I don’t think I’ll be accepting any more correspondence about this as you seem to be trying to waste my time.