A Labour MP has come under fire on social media after claiming “hard left” MPs can’t help but be anti-Semitic, because they’re “against capitalists” and see Jewish people as the controllers of capital.
Siobhain McDonagh, Labour MP for Mitcham and Morden, claimed during an interview with BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, that there is a link between anti-Semitism and the anti-capitalist beliefs of some members and supporters of her party.
It’s very much part of their politics, of hard left politics, to be against capitalists and to see Jewish people as the financiers of capital. Ergo you are anti-Jewish people.
The remarks drew widespread condemnation on Twitter from self-confessed socialists, including Jewish Labour supporters.
Journalist and prominent Labour activist Michael Segalov, who is Jewish, called on McDonagh to apologise for being incredibly disrespectful to the Jewish community, branding her comments “stupid and wrong.”
Writer David Rosenberg accused McDonagh of stereotyping Jews as capitalists. A point also picked up on by a Labour member who argued that in a roundabout way she’s saying “all Jews love money.”
McDonagh had been invited by the BBC to give her views on the current anti-Semitism “crisis” which has enveloped the Labour Party. She claimed general secretary Jennie Formby had behaved in the “most rude way” for “slapping down” deputy leader Tom Watson after he requested Labour MPs forward any complaints about anti-Semitism to him.
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