Louise Ellman: Another viper removed from Labour’s metaphorical bosom.
Former Labour MP Louise Ellman has quit the party ahead of a ‘trigger’ vote on whether she should remain the party’s candidate in the Liverpool Riverside constituency.
It seems clear that she knew she couldn’t win. Why?
Perhaps it is because people in her Constituency Labour Party (CLP) are sick of her constant lies about leader Jeremy Corbyn being an anti-Semite (he isn’t) and her false allegations about localised anti-Semitism.
An example of the latter was raised in the roundly-debunked Panorama documentary Is Labour Antisemitic?, broadcast in July.
Ben Westerman, who was the only Jewish member of Labour’s disputes team at the time (and is a member of the anti-Corbyn Jewish Labour Movement), was sent to Riverside to investigate allegations of anti-Semitism by members, and related a story that was immediately denounced as a lie by local party members. He related an account of an interview with a constituent that ended with that person asking where he was from: “Are you from Israel?” He said he assumed that this person was implying that he was “in cahoots” with the Israeli government.
There are recordings of the interviews he conducted. That particular interviewee (who was also Jewish) did not ask if Mr Westerman was from Israel, but in fact inquired as to which Labour Party branch he belonged.
Ms Ellman herself is vice-president of the Jewish Leadership Council and chair of Labour Friends of Israel (since August; she was previously its vice-chair under Joan Ryan – herself long-since exposed as a liar about Labour anti-Semitism). Both organisations have an anti-Corbyn stance, based on accusations of anti-Semitism.
She was proved a liar when she attacked Mr Corbyn for having attended a meeting in 2010 when Holocaust survivor Hajo Meyer was a speaker. The claim was that Mr Meyer – a Holocaust survivor who was at Auschwitz, remember – was an anti-Semite because he criticised the behaviour of the current Israeli government in no uncertain terms.
Ms Ellman said she had been “appalled” to find out about the event. In fact, it was revealed, she attended it herself and was present during the whole of Mr Meyer’s speech, which was heckled shamelessly by a small but loud group of Zionists. It seems she sat quiet and unmoved throughout this incident and only spoke up about it when she saw a chance to damage Mr Corbyn’s reputation with a false claim.
The ‘trigger’ vote, on whether she would need to seek her constituency’s backing to continue as its Labour candidate, was set to happen in a few days. In light of this, a vote of “no confidence” in her was taken off the table.
Ms Ellman had previously refused to tell a CLP meeting whether she would support a Corbyn government. Her resignation seems an acceptance that her lies have caught up with her and she would not have survived a ‘trigger’ vote and the selection procedure that would have followed.
But she was not above piling more shame on herself. In her letter of resignation, she finally admitted that she would not support a Corbyn-led government, and launched an evidence-less stream of accusations against the Labour leader:
“Under Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership, antisemitism has become mainstream in the Labour Party,” she continued.
“Jewish members have been bullied, abused and driven out.
“Antisemites have felt comfortable and vile conspiracy theories have been propagated. A party that permits anti-Jewish racism to flourish cannot be called anti-racist.”
And she stated that Mr Corbyn had spent decades “consorting with, and never confronting, antisemitism, Holocaust deniers and terrorist”.
In fact, anti-Semitism within the Labour Party is at a low point. Innocent members who have criticised the Israeli government – not Jewish – persecution of Palestinians, or supported those who were falsely accused, have been bullied, abused and driven out. I write from experience of such abuse.
It is people who support Israeli government racism against Palestinians who have been given space within the Labour Party, and it is they who have propogated any conspiracy theories – usually to counter genuine evidence against the Israeli government.
Mr Corbyn himself has been cleared of the accusations Ms Ellman levelled against him, many times.
And local views are summed up in this video:
Ms Ellman is a liar with an agenda. This Writer is glad to see the back of her. Now perhaps Liverpool Riverside can get a decent representative.
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