Facebook group helps Labour members avoid expulsion over antisemitism

According to a report, the group "Labour Party Compliance: Suspensions, Expulsions, Rejections Co-Op" was co-founded by Labour candidate Maria Carroll and included Holocaust deniers.

NOVEMBER 17, 2019 11:58

A man runs past a Labour Party sign with pictures of both Jeremy Corbyn and Britain’s new prime minister, Boris Johnson, in north London (photo credit: HANNAH MCKAY/ REUTERS) — A man runs past a Labour Party sign with pictures of both Jeremy Corbyn and Britain’s new prime minister, Boris Johnson, in north London

(photo credit: HANNAH MCKAY/ REUTERS)

A secret Facebook group to help Labour representatives, including some Holocaust deniers, defend themselves from charges of antisemitism and avoid expulsion from the party was uncovered by the Daily Mail on Sunday.

According to the report, the group – called "Labour Party Compliance: Suspensions, Expulsions, Rejections Co-Op" - was co-established and run by Labour candidate Maria Carroll, who is running for the Carmarthen East & Dinefwr seat in the upcoming election.

In order to expose the group, the British tabloid worked with Labour Against Antisemitism, an organization that describes itself as "started by Labour members to combat what we recognized as the rise of anti-Jewish sentiment in the Labour Party" and Gnasherjew, a group aimed at investigating antisemitic behavior within the party.

The Facebook group itself, a list of its members and its content are not publicly available or searchable online.

The paper stated that they were able to establish that Carroll "personally advised alleged Holocaust deniers," as the article explained.

For instance, she told Alan Bull, a candidate for Peterborough Council, who in 2015 posted an article claiming that the Holocaust was a "hoax," to delete all his posts on social media.

Bull was also advised by group co-founder Caroline Ticker to demand that the party delete all the information it held on him under the Data Protection Act, and to avoid cooperating with the investigation opened by the Labour Compliance Unit until the party did so.

Mollie Collins, a former county candidate and chair of Dorset Labour, also belonged to the group. In the past, she stated on Facebook that the Holocaust was fake and that BBC was a "mouthpiece for Israel," among other things.

Carroll told the Mail that she was not aware of these statements by Bull and Collins, otherwise she would have condemned them.

"Left-wing members were being suspended from the Labour Party to prevent them from voting in the 2016 Labour leadership election… When a small number in the group took an antisemitic conspiratorial direction, I left it," she added. However, the report noted that Carroll was still posting in the group up until May of this year.

"This confirms that the Labour Party has spent the last four years encouraging a toxic culture of anti-Jewish discrimination to flourish," according to Denny Taylor, founder and spokesman for Labour Against Antisemitism. "Responsibility must be leveled directly at Mr. Corbyn."

"I have been raising concerns about Jew-haters not being booted out of the party for a long time. I will be writing to the leadership demanding an immediate inquiry," he added.

Since Jeremy Corbyn's election as Labour leader in 2015, the party has faced multiple scandals related to his personal opinions and actions – which have included calling Hamas and Hezbollah "friends" and stating that "British Zionists" lack of sense of humor – but also to antisemitic and extremist views rooted in the party.

Earlier this year, the British watchdog Equality and Human Rights Commission opened a formal investigation into the party.

Several Labour politicians have since resigned from Labour.