UK Labour party activist Jackie Walker, who was expelled on March 27, 2019 for making antisemitic statements. Photo: YouTube screenshot.

Controversial UK Labour party activist Jackie Walker has been expelled from the party over antisemitic statements she has made.

Since far-left MP Jeremy Corbyn became Labour leader in 2015, the party has been wracked by antisemitism scandals, some touching Corbyn himself. Jewish organizations have criticized the party for failing to deal effectively with the problem and, last month, several MPs left the party, citing institutionalized antisemitism as one of the reasons.

Walker was involved in several of the scandals. As former vice-chair of Momentum, the party faction that forms the base of support for Corbyn, she was first caught claiming that Jews were the “chief financiers of the sugar and slave trade,” and saying, “The Jewish Holocaust does not allow Zionists to do what they want.”

After her comments became public, Walker was suspended from the party, but later readmitted.

Two years ago, Walker was suspended again after attacking Holocaust Memorial Day for not honoring victims of other genocides. In fact, it does so.

“In practice, it’s not actually circulated and advertised as such,” Walker said in her defense. “I was looking for information and I still haven’t heard a definition of antisemitism that I can work with.”

According to The Guardian, the Walker case was taken up by the party’s National Constitutional Committee, which has now decided to expel her.

“The NCC has found that the charges of breaches of party rules by Jackie Walker have been proven,” said a party spokesman. “The NCC consequently determined that the sanction for this breach of the rules is expulsion from Labour party membership.”

Walker has consistently claimed to be the victim of a racist witch hunt, and wrote a play called, “The Lynching,” about the proceedings.

She echoed those sentiments in response to her expulsion, saying, “After almost three years of racist abuse and serious threats; and of almost three years of being demonized, I was astounded that the Labour party refused to allow me a few short moments to personally address the disciplinary panel to speak in my own defense. What is so dangerous about my voice that it is not allowed to be heard?”

“All I have ever asked for is for equal treatment, due process, and natural justice; it seems that this is too much to ask of the Labour party,” she complained.

Jewish groups reacted with ambivalence to the news of Walker’s expulsion, expressing approval but noting that it had taken three years for decisive action to be taken against her.

A spokesperson for the Jewish Labour Movement said Walker’s statements were “a clear and unambiguous case of prejudicial and grossly detrimental behavior against the party.”

However, it said, the action against Walker was “two and a half years too late.”

Joe Glasman, head of political and government investigations at the Campaign Against Antisemitism, was more pointed in his remarks, saying, “It comes as no surprise that the institutionally antisemitic Labour Party waited almost three years to finally expel Jackie Walker.”

“During those three years she has toured the nation, openly supported by leading Labour MPs, claiming that the case against her was trumped up,” he added.

Referring to a possible investigation of Labour by Britain’s Equality and Human Rights Commission, Glasman said, “It is because Labour has shown itself to be incapable of addressing antisemitism cases in a fair, transparent, and timely manner that Campaign Against Antisemitism brought in the Equality and Human Right’s Commission to take charge.”

“Labour’s decision to finally act now that the Commission is at the gate, is not a sign of change, but merely an act of naked self-preservation by a political party being brought face-to-face with its own racism,” he stated.