Lord Alf Dubs calls for Jacob Rees-Mogg to be sacked over George Soros comment
Lord Alf Dubs calls for Leader of the House of Commons Jacob Rees-Mogg to be sacked over remarks he said were 'straight from the far right's antisemitic playbook'
Lord Alf Dubs has called for the Leader of the House of Commons Jacob Rees-Mogg to be sacked after he invoked Hungarian-American philanthropist George Soros in Parliament.
The Kindertransport refugee joined a chorus of criticism, saying Mogg’s remarks were “straight from the far right’s antisemitic playbook.”
Speaking at the despatch box on Thursday, Rees-Mogg responded to the MP Valerie Vaz’s remark hedge fund manager Crispin Odey “made £220m overnight as Sterling slumped after the 2016 referendum result.”
“One of the major funders allegedly of the Remain campaign, the Remoaner funder-in-chief, is one George Soros, who made a billion pounds when Sterling crashed out of the exchange rate mechanism, which is five times as much as Mr Odey has made,” said Rees-Mogg.
- Read more – Opinion: We need to talk about the Tories’ antisemitism problem
“All [Valerie Vaz] is saying that Mr. Soros is a better hedge-fund manager than my friend Crispin Odey, who is a great friend of mine and indeed a supporter of mine.”
Soros, who was born in Budapest to Jewish parents in 1930 and lived through the Nazi occupation of 1944-1945, is often the subject of antisemitic conspiracy theories on social media relating to Jewish bankers controlling governments.
In a statement, Lord Dubs said: “Jacob Rees-Mogg’s comments are straight from the far right’s antisemitic playbook.
“Boris Johnson must condemn his remarks about a Holocaust survivor and remove him from his Cabinet.
“Like George Soros, I fled Nazi persecution, and like me, George Soros campaigns for European countries to give sanctuary to refugees today, just as I was given refuge as a child in 1939. Boris Johnson and his government don’t want vulnerable people who they see as being different to them coming to our country. Those are the same arguments that were used against me and other Jewish people coming here 80 years ago.
“None of this is surprising from this Conservative government, which cosies up to antisemitic governments in Hungary and Poland and champions Trump, who refused to condemn neo-fascists in Charlottesville who chanted ‘Jews will not replace us’.”
The Jewish Labour Movement tweeted: “Jacob Rees-Mogg using this language from the despatch box plays straight into the far-right’s antisemitic rhetoric of a shadowy Jewish conspiracy meddling in politics.
“The way George Soros is invoked by the far-right, particularly in Eastern European politics, echoes the same conspiracies and tropes that have been directed towards Jews for centuries. They have no place in any civil society.”
Jacob Rees-Mogg and the Conservative Party have been reached for comment.
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