Please see below a complaint issued this morning from The Jewish Representative Council of Greater Manchester and Region to the Complaints and Legal departments of the Labour Party concerning their dealing with the anti-Semitism issue.

I hope you find this useful.

Dear Sirs

I wish to make a complaint regarding a Labour Party member, who is also a member of the NEC.

According to media reports, during the NEC discussion on the definition of antisemitism on Tuesday 17th July, NEC member Pete Willsman said: “Some of the people in the Jewish community are Trump fanatics – I’ll take no lectures from them.”

If, for example, during a discussion on the definition of Islamophobia, someone had said: “Some of the people in the Muslim community are ISIS fanatics – I’ll take no lectures from them”, it would be rightly condemned as Islamophobic and racist.  This comment by Pete Willsman is clearly antisemitic and racist and I expect the Labour Party to take swift action against this member. He should certainly be suspended from the NEC before he is able to influence any further policies related to racism.

That these comments were made by someone charged with making decisions about how the Labour Party tackles antisemitism, makes the matter all the more serious.

Michael Rubinstein

Chair of Human Rights, Racism & anti-Semitism Committee,

Jewish Representative Council of Greater Manchester and Region