Labour’s deputy leader, Tom Watson, has said the party will investigate how it gave a platform at a conference fringe event to a speaker who said people should be allowed to question whether the Holocaust happened.

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The remarks by the Israeli-American author Miko Peled have renewed alarm about antisemitism in the Labour party. The party is set to pass a significant rule change on Tuesday to toughen its stance on antisemitism and other forms of prejudice, proposed by the Jewish Labour Movement and backed by Jeremy Corbyn and Labour’s national executive committee.

Senior Labour figures will hope that the passing of the rule change on Tuesday morning will send a signal that the party is prepared to get tough on anti-Jewish hate speech within its ranks.

Speaking at an event on free speech and Israel, Peled is reported to have said: “This is about free speech, the freedom to criticise and to discuss every issue, whether it’s the Holocaust: yes or no, Palestine, the liberation, the whole spectrum. There should be no limits on the discussion.”

The Daily Mail quoted him saying: “It’s about the limits of tolerance: we don’t invite the Nazis and give them an hour to explain why they are right; we do not invite apartheid South Africa racists to explain why apartheid was good for the blacks; and in the same way we do not invite Zionists – it’s a very similar kind of thing.”

Watson said he was disgusted by the remarks and said Peled should be expelled from the party, if he was a member.

“It is nothing to do with the official Labour party conference. And if there was Holocaust denial there, these people have no right to be in the Labour party, and if they are they should be expelled,” he told ITV’s Good Morning Britain.

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He said Labour’s conference organising committee would investigate how Peled had been given a seat on a panel at the event.

Watson said: “I’m sure these allegations from the fringe, which is nothing to do with the Labour party, will be investigated.” He added that he would attempt to reassure colleagues and friends in the Jewish Labour Movement that the party has no tolerance for antisemitism.

He said: “It is disgusting to deny the Holocaust. These people are cranks, they have no role in the mainstream of politics and we certainly don’t want them in the Labour party.”

Asked about a suggestion from the Holocaust Educational Trust that Labour under Corbyn had created a fertile ground for antisemites, Watson said: “I wish we could drive out any antisemite from politics … it has always been there on the fringes. If it ends up invading the Labour party conference space, then that’s obviously a bad thing.

“But it is a very small number of people in our society. If they get involved in the Labour party we want them out. And the Holocaust Educational Trust are right to call this out. If we have got any evidence that Labour party members are denying the Holocaust, are using antisemitism in their politics, then there is no role for them.”

The shadow health secretary, Jonathan Ashworth, also condemned Peled’s remarks. Also speaking to Good Morning Britain, he said: “I hope the conference votes for that motion because we should have absolute zero tolerance when it comes to the quite disgusting and pitiful antisemitism that sadly we’re sometimes seeing on social media these days.”

In an email to the Guardian, Peled pointed out that he himself was Jewish, but was not a member of the Labour party. He said: “The Holocaust was a terrible crime that we must study and from which we must all learn. I reject the idea that Holocaust deniers, foolish as they may be, should be treated as criminals and I doubt that supporters of Israel should be given the authority to judge who is or is not a racist and antisemite.

“Promoters of racist ideologies should not be given a public platform, and to me that does include people who promote Zionism – which is a racist ideology whose followers have committed and continue to commit crimes against the people of Palestine.

“If we are to do justice to the memory of the millions of victims of the Holocaust, Jewish and Roma and many, many others, then we must engage in robust debate and education about the causes of current, ongoing violence and injustice.”

And responding to the row in a series of tweets Peled said he did not deny the Holocaust, and suggested that Watson and Ashworth were confusing freedom of speech with antisemitism.

Miko Peled, (@mikopeled) Oh boy! https://t.co/ROzD1krAcQ free speech is now antisemitism too... @UKLabour should know better

In another he said: “What is worse, discussing the holocaust – which we know already happened or complicity with genocide in #Palestine?” And in a third he added: “Stifling debate desecrates the memories of millions murdered by Hitler! Why are zionists afraid of free speech?”

In a heated debate after the change was proposed in the conference hall, the Hastings and Rye delegate Leah Levane attacked the Jewish Labour Movement. “They do not have the right to speak for me or many other Jewish Labour members in this place,” she said.

Levane’s local party had proposed an alternative change, which would describe anti-Zionism as “legitimate political discourse” which should not be taken as evidence of hatred of Jews, but said she would withdraw because “the pressure is too great … We are not going to risk being seen as the splitters.”



Levane, who is a member of the anti-Zionist Jewish Voice for Labour, said accusations of antisemitism occurred when people criticised “the despicable actions of the Israeli government against the Palestinian people”.

The Jewish Labour Movement’s Mike Katz, who was Labour’s candidate for Hendon in the general election, said the group did not want to stifle criticism of Israel.

“This spirit of our rule change is that it is outrageous there is nothing in our rule book that explicitly makes bullying, discrimination and harassment of ethnic minorities an offence. If you support another party, you are out. If you engage in hate speech, it is not so clear,” he said.



“This rule change puts it right. Repairing the once strong relationship between our party and the Jewish community, with so many shared values, is a political imperative as well as a moral one.



“Some people say we are trying to weaponise antisemitism or stifle criticism of Israel. Let’s be clear: there is nothing wrong with legitimate criticism of the Israeli government and illegal settlements. JLM members do it all the time, in strident debate. But you do not need antisemitic language and stereotypes to engage in those debates. That is what we need to deal with.”

Naomi Wimborne-Idrissi, one of Jewish Voice for Labour’s founders, said the JLM would have more credibility if it did not keep “running to the Daily Mail and the Telegraph with stories”. Wimborne-Idrissi, who chaired the controversial fringe meeting, said she was concerned the change referenced the “holding of beliefs” as opposed to expressing them. “Holding them? That’s thought crime, comrades, and we can’t be having it,” she said.

Others speaking said the rule change did not go far enough. Zach Murrell-Dowson, a delegate from Bristol North West, said antisemitism was the only form of bigotry where a common response was not to accept the complaint, but to question the motives of the complainant.



“Jewish members have seen Labour party members share antisemitic cartoons, or talk about an all-powerful Jewish lobby,” he said. “Those who say they have been silenced merely for criticism of the Israeli government are simply wrong. We can and should have free speech on Israel but we must confront antisemitism in our party.”

A party spokesman said: “Labour condemns antisemitism in the strongest possible terms and our national executive committee unanimously passed tough new rule changes last week. All groupings in the party should treat one another with respect. We will not tolerate antisemitism or Holocaust denial.”

Momentum, the grassroots leftwing group that has been Corbyn’s key support base, told delegates in its daily alert on Tuesday that they should vote in favour of the Jewish Labour motion. The majority of the delegates at this year’s conference are aligned with Momentum, and the group’s explicit backing for the rule change will mean it is highly likely to pass.