‘Vile’ attacks by soap star condemned
LABOUR HAS been urged to “take action” over a hard-left Party branch official who questioned the loyalty of Jewish MPs to the UK.
John Davies — chair of the St Michaels branch of Liverpool Riverside Labour Party — said the “prime interests” of Jewish MP Ruth Smeeth were not with Jeremy Corbyn’s party and instead were “elsewhere”.
Mr Davies — an actor who has appeared in Coronation Street and Hollyoaks — also suggested Jews who identify with Israel “have a big problem” and justified historical comparisons between Israel and Nazi Germany.
Ms Smeeth, the MP for Stoke North, and parliamentary chair of the Jewish Labour Movement, told the JC his views had “no place in the party I have dedicated my life to” and called for the leadership to take action against him.
Mr Davies, who also uses the alias Johnny Beggs, has been one of the fiercest critics of his local MP Dame Louise Ellman, who is Jewish. Last month he circulated a letter amongst Liverpool Labour activists which blamed “proIsrael Labour MPs” for both the suspecsion of MP Chris Williamson and the expulsion of Jackie Walker over allegations of antisemitism.
Mr Davies made his attack on Ms Smeeth after joining other hard-left activists in launching sustained challenges to a Labour council candidate, Stephane Savery, who expressed support for the Jewish Labour Movement in a Facebook post last year.
A Labour supporter in the discussion thread praised Ruth Smeeth for her work with the trade union movement and for her work with the anti-racist campaign group Hope not Hate.
But Mr Davies, writing as Johnny Beggs, stated: “Hope Not Hate is no longer taken seriously as an anti-racist organisation.”
He added: “Ruth Smeeth worked for BRITCOM (sic) an Israel advocacy group.
“She either lied about Marc Wadsworth [the activist expelled for allegations John Davies in involving antisemitism after confronting Ms Smeeth]after the Chakrabarti report] or has hearing difficulties — nothing Marc said was remotely antisemitic.
“Her prime interests are neither socialism nor the Labour Party — they lie elsewhere.”
Ms Smeeth, who has repeatedly been targeted by hard-left activists, told the JC: “I have been a Labour member since I was a teenager.
“This man and his vile views have no place in the party that I have dedicated my life too.
“These traditional anti-Jewish tropes about duel loyalty and the disgusting justifications of Hilter’s stance towards Jews are simply unacceptable—the Labour Party needs to take action.”
Stephane Savery commented: “John Davies directed his attacks at me poured because I am a Jewish Labour member.
“I only later learned that the name he used to mount this attacks, Johnny Beggs, was a false name, used to make these disgraceful attacks on myself and on other Jews.
“Some of his claims about Hitler and the disloyalty of Jewish MPs are more suited to the far-right than to someone who claims to be a left-wing supporter of Jeremy Corbyn.”
Mr Davies also falsely claimed his own MP Dame Louise Ellman had used a parliamentary speech to express support for “Israel’s child prisoner policy.” He also suggested Luciana Berger, who quit Labour in February citing “institutional antisemitism”, was not interested in challenging racism but “in damaging Corbyn and making Palestinian advocacy risky.”
When someone questioned linking those accusing Labour of antisemitism with Hitler, Mr Davies also wrote: “I think historical comparisons need to be made sometimes.”
Mr Davies sought to justify the former Mayor of London Ken Livingstone’s repeated references to Hitler and Zionism.
He wrote that Mr Livingstone had been expected to provide “a detailed resumé” of Hitler’s policy for “an MSM soundbite”.
Mr Davies added that Mr Livingstone’s “focus point was the collaboration of Zionism and Nazism on the basis that the former saw the creation of a Jewish state in Palestine as its prime objective and undermining of the Nazi state as secondary.”
Ken Livingstone resigned from the Labour Party in May last year. This week he became honourary
This man and his vile views have no place in Labour’