Jackie Walker won’t share platform with Chris Williamson next month
Labour spokesperson says the controversial ex-vice chair of Momentum is not anticipated to speak alongside the former shadow cabinet member in May
Suspended Labour member Jackie Walker will no longer share a platform with Chris Williamson MP next month.
It has been confirmed by a Labour spokesman that the former Momentum Vice Chair, who is suspended by the party over alleged anti-Semitic comments in 2016, isn’t expected to make an appearance at a May Day event.
While Labour MPs have been told not to appear on platforms alongside those who have been expelled or suspended as a disciplinary measure, there was no such ban on appearing with people – such as Walker – suspended pending investigation.
Walker, who claims Jewish heritage, first offended the community when she was shown commenting on “the Jewish financiers of the slave trade” in a Facebook post.
Later, she was criticised for complaining that Holocaust Memorial Day should be more inclusive a meeting organised by the Labour Party, and at the same meeting, she was heard saying she hadn’t yet come across a definition of anti-Semitism that she could “work with”.
In March, Chris Williamson MP was criticised for appearing at an event with Walker in Peterborough. He said it was a “real pleasure and a privilege” to be sharing a platform with Her, and that he’d be “absolutely delighted” if Jackie was let back in the Labour Party.
Barry Gardiner, Shadow Secretary of State for International Trade, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme this week that “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.”
He added that Jeremy Corbyn had set out how there was “no place” for anti-Semitism in the party.
This comes after a meeting between Jewish community leaders and Jeremy Corbyn, which they branded a “disappointing missed opportunity”, and added that the Labour leader had “failed” to agree to any concrete plans to tackle anti-Semitism.
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