Remarks made by the Labour leader in 2013 have been reported by the Conservative party to the parliamentary commissioner for standards
Labour Leader Jeremy Corbyn has been referred to the parliamentary standards watchdog by the Conservative party over remarks he made about “Zionists” in Britain.
He said: “There are two problems, one is they don’t want to study history, and the second is, having lived in this country for a very long time, probably all their lives, they don’t understand English irony either.”
Corbyn made the comments at a conference in 2013, which you can watch below.
https://youtu.be/rBouC-XpJx4
The complaint says the comment breaches a clause that stops MPs from making remarks which “cause significant damage to the reputation and integrity of the House of Commons.”
Tory vice chairwoman for communities Helen Grant said the remarks had been called “xenophobic and anti-Semitic.”
Ms Grant wrote to Kathryn Stone, parliamentary commissioner for standards, requesting an investigation.
Corbyn said a speech by Manuel Hassassian, then Palestinian ambassador, was recorded by “thankfully silent Zionists” who then “berated” the speaker.
The Labour leader said he was trying to “defend the Palestinian ambassador in the face of what I thought were deliberate misrepresentations” from people “for whom English was a first language, when it isn’t for the ambassador.”
“I described those pro-Israel activists as Zionists, in the accurate political sense and not as a euphemism for Jewish people – and that is made clear in the rest of my speech that day.
“I am now more careful with how I might use the term ‘Zionist’ because a one self-identifying political term has been increasingly hijacked by antisemites as a code for Jews.”
Luciana Berger, a Labour MP, said the “inexcusable comments… makes me as a proud British Jew feel unwelcome in my own party.”
“I’ve lived in Britain all my life and I don’t need any lessons in history/irony.”
