Since his election as Labour leader Keir Starmer has pledged to take a ‘zero tolerance’ stance on anti-Semitism, in a bid to mark a break with Jeremy Corbyn’s tenure. So Mr S was disturbed to learn that not one but two Labour councillors suspended for anti-Semitism last September were yesterday readmitted to the Haringey CLP and are now part of the Labour group once again. A leaked email seen by Mr S from Amy Fode, the London Labour regional party, confirms that ‘Cllr Preston Tabois and Cllr Noah Tucker suspensions have ended today and any restrictions on attending group meetings or being part of the group are now lifted.’
Tabois was accused of supporting a conspiracy theory in 2013 that Jews murdered each other in the Holocaust as part of a masterplan to create the state of Israel, having written ‘Your not wrong brother’ on an online story about a UKIP election candidate’s post which propagated this claim. He is now standing as a London Labour Assembly candidate.
Tucker meanwhile has a longer charge sheet. In March 2019 he criticised the suspension of ‘one of our best and most honest and most loyal MPs, Chris Williamson, for the crime of speaking the truth’ and also claimed the decision of former MP Luciana Berger and others to quit the party were ‘nothing whatsoever to do with anti-Semitism and nothing at all to do with allegations of bullying’ and that they were actually attempting ‘to protect the power, the privilege and the huge wealth of a tiny minority of people’.
The following year he asked Tottenham Constituency Labour party to drop a clause stating that the group should adopt ‘a zero-tolerance position’ on anti-Semitism – a move which prompted local MP David Lammy to hit out. Tucker’s amendment proposed that the party’s disciplinary process should not be outsourced to an independent body – one of the Board of Deputies’ ten pledges for Labour leadership candidates.
The Ham and High newspaper also reported he shared a Morning Star article which claimed US police officers ‘responsible for the killing of George Floyd received training in restraint techniques and anti-terror tactics from Israeli law enforcement officers’ – with the reference to restraint tactics being subsequently removed weeks after Tucker shared it. The paper further reported claims he called the Board of Deputies of British Jews’ ten recommendations to tackle anti-Semitism in the Labour party ‘beyond ridiculous.’
Haringey of course is sadly notorious for such issues, with two former Jewish Labour councillors speaking out in 2018 about the anti-Semitism they had experienced from Momentum’s Haringey branch. Joe Goldberg and Natan Doron said that it had become impossible to be a Jewish Labour councillor, with insults about the Holocaust regularly coming from Momentum members.
If this is zero tolerance, Mr S wonders what the alternative looks like.
Update: Steerpike has learned that since the publication of this story, Noah Tucker has again been re-suspended from the Labour Party as per an email from the Haringey CLP leader.
Update II: Preston Tabois has now been removed as a GLA candidate following Steerpike’s exclusive.
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