Jewish voters in Leeds walk out of hustings over Labour antisemitism

Leeds North East candidates were invited to the event, organised by the Leeds Jewish Representative Council.

But a group of audience members left the session in protest over Labour candidate Fabian Hamilton’s responses to questions of antisemitism in his party.

Amjad Bashir, the Conservative party candidate, had agreed to attend despite being suspended by the Tories over antisemitic comments saying that British Jews return from trips to Israel as “brainwashed extremists”.

He has since apologised and the Conservatives have distanced themselves from their former pick, but in his absence frustration felt by members of the community was directed at Mr Hamilton.

Organisers warned tensions were running high in the election, particularly in the Leeds North East constituency, but asked for decorum and to keep in mind that it was a community event.

And Mr Hamilton gave an opening statement where he spoke about being an MP since 1997 but this was met with calls from the audience of “too long”.

He was then taken to task over the Labour party’s response to antisemitism. Asked whether with an increase in hate crime, and whether respective parties had done enough to tackle anti-Semitism, Mr Hamilton said “There is no room in politics or society for any sort of hate crime”.

“My party is not institutionally antisemitic”, he added.

However, some in the audience disagreed with shouts of “rubbish”, claiming Labour had not dealt quickly enough with complaints of antisemitism.