Chris Williamson has been suspended from the Labour Party pending investigation, a party spokesperson has revealed.
It comes after a video emerged of the Derby North MP saying that Labour had been “too apologetic” over anti-Semitism.
On Saturday – just days after eight MPs quit Labour over the party’s handling of anti-Semitism – Williamson told a Momentum meeting in Sheffield that the party had “given too much ground” over accusations of racism.
“The party that has done more to stand up to racism is now being demonised as a racist, bigoted party,” he said in the video, which was unearthed by the Yorkshire Post.
His speech came less than a month after Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn insisted that Williamson was not anti-Jewish, telling Derbyshire Live: “Chris Williamson is a very good, very effective Labour MP.
“He’s a very strong anti-racist campaigner. He is not anti-Semitic in any way.”
Williamson apologised for the comments on Wednesday, saying he was “sorry for how I chose to express myself on this issue within our party”.
But his apology was dubbed “long-winded and heavily caveated” by deputy Labour leader Tom Watson, who called from him to be suspended form the party.
Meanwhile, 38 Labour MPs – including influential backbenchers Yvette Cooper and Harriet Harman – signed a letter to the party’s general secretary Jenny Formby demanding his suspension.
“We must show we will not tolerate this behaviour from anyone in our party,” the letter from the Labour Tribune group read.
Stephanie Lloyd, director of centre-left Labour movement Progress, criticised the party for how long it took to suspend Williamson.
“It took over 24 hours and dozens of MPs, the deputy leader Tom Watson and leading anti-racist charity Hope Not Hate calling for his suspension for the party to take any action,” she said.
“The Labour Party should get no praise for simply doing the right thing and only doing so because they were forced to act.”
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