Tory antisemitim file updates

At the time of the last general election, towards the end of 2019, I wrote a long post on why the Tories are not the anti-antisemitic party. This post briefly updates the Tory antisemitism file.

November 2019: Tory candidate Amjad Bashir suspended over antisemitism

The Leeds NE candidate (previously a UKIP MEP, and a pro-Brexit restauranteur, according to the BBC)  was suspended over remarks made as a UKIP member in 2014, that young British Jews who visit Israel come back as "brainwashed extremists".

January 2020: A Top Boris Johnson Aide Says The UK Will Have A “Special Relationship” With Viktor Orbán’s Hungary After Brexit

Tim Montgomerie praised the "interesting early thinking on the limits of liberalism" by Hungary's authoritarian government

May 2020: Scandal as Michael Gove's fascist bookshelf revealed

While everyone's talking about Michael Gove and David Irving, I found an old article that Michael Gove wrote about David Irving. It gives a real insight into Gove's attitude to Holocaust denial and history more generally.

Thread:

While everyone's talking about Michael Gove and David Irving, I found an old article that Michael Gove wrote about David Irving. It gives a real insight into Gove's attitude to Holocaust denial and history more generally.

— libcom.org (@libcomorg) May 4, 2020

June 2020: Tories readmit an Aberdeen councillor suspended last year over a a history of antisemitic and Islamophobic internet comments.
Ryan Houghton seemed to suggest that some events around the Nazi regime’s state-sponsored persecution and murder of six million Jews had been “fabricated”.

September 2020: MP's wife Sasha Swire pubishes diary full of upper class casual antisemtism, including from Crispin Blunt.

Here are two references: pic.twitter.com/W38mXEHZDv

— Stephen Pollard (@stephenpollard) September 26, 2020

October 2020: MP Ben Bradley indulges in "cultural Marxism" conspiracy theories.

Why is Ben Bradley engaging in the antisemitic conspiracy theory "cultural marxism" that has led to synagogue shootings? https://t.co/M8x4bA9xuT

— Tom Wainwright (@TomNwainwright) October 21, 2020

so in the time since the @BoardofDeputies (among others) criticised @suellabraverman for invoking antisemitic "cultural marxism" conspiracy theory & asked her not to do so in future, at least 4 Tories have decided to just carry on using it (3 of which times were in parliament!) pic.twitter.com/TvjWifJwQE

— Tom Wainwright (@TomNwainwright) October 21, 2020

November 2020: Loads of Tory MPs jump on the "cultural Marxism" train. (See also Vice, JC.)

January 2021: MP Desmond Swayne appears on show of Holocaust deiner Richie Allen

.@BoDPres Marie van der Zyl: “We are deeply concerned that Conservative MP Desmond Swayne appeared on a show that hosts Holocaust deniers. This should be inexcusable in any major political party. We have raised our concerns with the Conservatives as a matter of urgency.”

— Board of Deputies of British Jews (@BoardofDeputies) January 28, 2021

He has form: 

Swayne said in parliament in 2018 that if one criticises "Israel, as I have done, one receives a number of unsolicited invitations to meet various people. Members need to be absolutely vigilant about those people." Guess he didn't heed his advice.https://t.co/bXJb4388Xg

— Bob From Brockley 🥤 (@bobfrombrockley) January 29, 2021

April 2021: Tory candidate being investigated after saying sorry for ‘Jew boy’ post.

Darran Davies, the Conservative candidate in Charville ward by-election in Hillingdon, shared an offensive Facebook post.

Also read:

Libcom: Conservative anti-Semitism: the strange case of Boris Johnson, Richard Spencer and Gavin McInnes (November 2019)