- Nasreen Khan made offensive remarks about Jews on Facebook five years ago
- Miss Khan has said the comments were ‘inappropriate and unacceptable’
- But despite the remarks, she is on a two-person shortlist for the Labour nomination in a safe seat in Bradford at next year’s local
Nasreen Khan, a former member of George Galloway’s Respect Party, made offensive remarks about Jews on Facebook five years ago
The Labour Party is embroiled in another anti-Semitism row after a mother who questioned Hitler’s reputation was shortlisted to fight a council seat.
Nasreen Khan, a former member of George Galloway’s Respect Party, made offensive remarks about Jews on Facebook five years ago.
She said Jews ‘have reaped the rewards of playing victims’ and that there were ‘worse people than Hitler in this world’.
Miss Khan, a Muslim who has since joined the Labour Party, said they were ‘inappropriate and unacceptable’.
But despite the remarks, she is on a two-person shortlist for the Labour nomination in a safe seat in Bradford at next year’s local elections.
A final decision is expected to be made on Friday.
In 2012, writing under a video titled ‘The Palestine you need to know’, she said: ‘It’s such a shame that the history teachers in our school never taught us this but they are the first to start brainwashing us and our children into thinking the bad guy was Hitler.
Miss Khan, a mother, was also given a restraining order at Bradford Magistrates’ Court in November 2011 to protect a local solicitor and her family from harassment
Miss Khan, a Muslim who has since joined the Labour Party, said they were ‘inappropriate and unacceptable’
‘What have the Jews done good in this world?’ When questioned about the comment, she had added: ‘No, I’m not a Nazi, I’m an ordinary British Muslim that had an opinion and put it across.
We have worse people than Hitler in this world now.’ When she faced further online criticism she said: ‘Stop beating a dead horse.
The Jews have reaped the rewards of playing victims. Enough is enough!’
Miss Khan, a mother, was also given a restraining order at Bradford Magistrates’ Court in November 2011 to protect a local solicitor and her family from harassment.
Simon Cooke, Bradford Council’s Conservative group leader, said: ‘The Labour Party really has got to get itself sorted out. These are just not the sort of views that are acceptable.
The Labour Party shouldn’t have people like that as candidates,’ adding that retractions were ‘easily said’.
He said: ‘It really is concerning if the Labour Party is selecting people with these kinds of views, even if they are historic.
Miss Khan later said: ‘I have been honest, frank and held my hand up regarding comments I made on Facebook over five years ago. I was challenged immediately about my language and apologised straight away. I accept fully that it was inappropriate and unacceptable.
I profoundly regret the comments I made in 2012 and any offence they caused.’
Labour has faced repeated accusations of failing to deal with anti-Semitism in recent years.
In April 2016, Bradford West MP Naz Shah was suspended from the party after arguing that Israel’s population should be ‘transported’ out of the Middle East to America.
Former Mayor of London Ken Livingstone was also suspended for two years after he claimed that Hitler colluded with Zionists before the Second World War.
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn ordered a probe into alleged anti-Semitism and racism in the Labour Party. The inquiry, run by Shami Chakrabarti, found that the party ‘is not overrun by anti-Semitism, Islamophobia or other forms of racism’.
A spokesman for the Labour Party said it did not comment on internal party selection matters.
Earlier this month, it emerged that Labour’s Jewish wing is holding the events that use a slide show of hate-filled messages posted on the internet by the party’s own activists.
The abuse includes one Labour member describing Jews as a ‘corrupt master race’ controlling sex-trafficking, pornography and wars worldwide.
Another wrote: ‘Every f****** Jew that died in the Holocaust was a blessing.’
One councillor suggested there was a worldwide Jewish conspiracy and that Israel wanted to commit atrocities across the whole world.
MP John Cryer, who is chairman of the Parliamentary Labour Party, said that the tweets were ‘stomach-churning’ and ‘awful’.
‘I have no idea why people who hold these views would want to be a member of the Labour Party,’ he said.
‘The Labour Party has been at the forefront of confronting Nazism right from the 1930s – so what possesses these people to become members I don’t understand. I have seen tweets like this at our disciplinary body and what I know is these people are quickly suspended and expelled.’
The Jewish Labour Movement (JLM) held a training session at September’s Labour conference – itself blighted by accusations of anti-semitism – in a doomed attempt to nip the problem in the bud.
Some 1,200 members have attended the official Labour Party sessions, which are carried out by the JLM, in the past 14 months.
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