Barry Gardiner: Chris Williamson is 'wrong' to share platform with Jackie Walker

Chris Williamson is "wrong" to share a platform with a Labour activist accused of anti-Semitism, a senior Shadow Cabinet member has said.



Barry Gardiner's comments are the strongest condemnation yet by a member of Jeremy Corbyn's frontbench team of the Derby North MP's decision to appear alongside Jackie Walker.

However, the Shadow International Trade Secretary said Labour would not do anything to stop Mr Williamson because Ms Walker has not been found guilty of the allegations against her.

Mr Williamson - a close ally of Jeremy Corbyn - is billed as one of the speakers at a 1st May rally in Kent chaired by Ms Walker, who was suspended by Labour after said the Jews were among the "chief financiers of the slave trade".

His appearance at the event was raised at an acrimonious meeting between Jeremy Corbyn and representatives of the Board of Deputies of British Jews and the Jewish Leadership Council last night. Both organisations want MPs to be banned from sharing platforms with those accused of anti-Semitism.

Speaking on the Today programme this morning, Barry Gardiner said the Labour leader agreed that "no member of parliament or official in the Labour party should appear on a platform with anybody found guilty of anti-Semitism".

"One in this country is still innocent until proven guilty," he said. "It's right that when somebody has been found guilty nobody should share a platform. My own view, my personal view, is that Chris is wrong to share a platform with somebody who has expressed the views that she has."

A joint statement issued by the Deputies of British Jews and the Jewish Leadership Council following last night's meeting called it "a disappointing missed opportunity regarding the problem of anti-Semitism in the Labour party", and the groups repeated their call for long-standing cases against Ms Walker and former London Mayor Ken Livingstone to be fast-tracked.

Mr Gardiner told the Today programme that Mr Corbyn - who yesterday penned an Evening Standard article apologising for his party's response to date - was determined to crack down on the problem of anti-Semitism, but he admitted the party was now addressing the issue "far too late".

The frontbencher said: "Yesterday he came out with an article which you will have read in the Evening Standard where he absolutely set out that there is no place for anti-Semitism in the party and set out the steps that we are now taking to deal with the problem - far too late, far too late - and he has acknowledged that, he has apologised for that.

"And I think he and many others are ashamed of the fact that it has taken so long in the Labour party to deal with this. But it is being dealt with."

However, Jonathan Goldstein, who chairs of the Jewish Leadership Council and attended last night's meeting, was scathing in his verdict on the Labour leader's commitment to calling out allies accused of anti-Semitism.

"He engages in a conversation until you ask him to do something," Mr Goldstein told the same programme. "And when you ask him to do something he has this habit of just staring and basically just staring. Because I think when it comes to calling out people that he knows and has known for a long time he finds it impossible to take that leadership and call them out."

A senior Labour source last night challenged the Jewish groups' version of events following the meeting.

They said: "There were lots of areas of agreement. Ken Livingstone and Jackie Walker’s cases are being expedited and should be dealt with by the end of July. The party is looking at introducing time limits, but we need to look at legal issues around this.

"Jeremy made clear he was taking a personal lead on this issue and has clearly and repeatedly said that concerns about anti-Semitism must not be dismissed as smears and people must not be criticised for speaking out about anti-Semitism, and that those who do so do not do this in his name."