More than a dozen Labour MPs have reported the Green party to Sussex police and the EHRC over its ‘Zionism is racism’ policy, The Spectator can reveal.
Zack Polanski’s party was plunged deeper into crisis this afternoon after politicians, led by former Home Office minister Mike Tapp and Labour Friends of Israel chair, Mark Sewards, urged police in Brighton to examine whether events at the Green conference may have crossed into criminally actionable racial or religious hatred against Jewish people.
The MPs point to delegates chanting ‘say it loud, say it clear, Zionists are not welcome here’ as a potential legal flashpoint, questioning whether the term ‘Zionist’ was being used as a proxy for Jewish people. They have asked Sussex police to examine whether the Public Order Act may have been breached.
The letter reads: ‘Our concern is whether the term “Zionist” was used, in this setting, to direct or encourage hostility towards Jewish people. The rejected safeguard (amendment) is particularly relevant because it specifically concerned synagogues and Jewish communal organisations. It therefore raises questions about the treatment of Jewish people and institutions in Britain.’
It adds: ‘We ask Sussex police to record this complaint, secure the relevant evidence and assess whether a criminal investigation is warranted. We ask the police to establish where it occurred, who participated, whether anyone was directly targeted, and what was said or done before and afterwards.’
The complaint to the EHRC, meanwhile, centres on whether the Green party’s new anti-Zionist policy – particularly its rejection of protections for members affiliated with synagogues and Jewish organisations – could result in unlawful discrimination against Jewish members.
Yesterday, the KC Adam Wagner argued that ‘there is a strong risk that the motion as passed contravenes the Equality Act 2010, which applies to political parties, as it will discriminate against and harass people who hold Zionist beliefs and Jewish people more generally.’
The letter, addressed to EHRC chair Dr Mary-Ann Stephenson, is signed by 18 Labour MPs: Mike Tapp, Mark Sewards, David Taylor, Steve Yemm, Rachel Blake, Sam Carling, Mike Reader, Mary Creagh, Jess Asato, Luke Akehurst, Jon Pearce, Peter Swallow, Jim Dickson, Preet Kaur Gill, Anna Gelderd, Sharon Hodgson, Damien Egan and Claire Hazelgrove. This list included MPs who were in the Labour party during the EHRC investigation into anti-Semitism under Jeremy Corbyn, as well as those elected for the first time in 2024.
Meanwhile, the chair of Amnesty International, Sandy Ruthven, today announced that he had resigned his Green party membership over what he described as the party’s ‘failure to confront prejudice’ and its courting of the ‘hard-left’ vote. Ruthven said that his ‘heart has always been with the Green party’ but that the motion ‘marks the end of the line for me’.
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