Jackie Walker said that Boris Johnson, who described black people as picaninnies with watermelon smiles, would have been suspended had he been a member of Labour

A hard-left Labour activist who said Jews were the “chief financiers of the slave trade” has refused to apologise.

Jackie Walker, the vice-chairwoman of the Labour Party in South Thanet and vice-chairwoman of Momentum, the network of Jeremy Corbyn supporters, was cleared of antisemitism on Saturday after an investigation by the party. Ms Walker said yesterday she was “saddened” if she had upset people but that her critics should join her in campaigning against “fascists”.

The Jewish Chronicle reported Ms Walker to Labour after she wrote on Facebook: “What debt do we owe the Jews?”

The activist, whose father was Jewish, said: “Many Jews (my ancestors too) were the chief financiers of the sugar and slave trade.” She referred to an “African Holocaust” where she