GWYNNE: From Holocaust Memorial Day supporter to 'anti-semite' in less than a month

Jewish Labour members today condemned disgraced MP Andrew Gwynne as a racist and anti-semite over comments he posted to about a Jewish man on WhatsApp.

In a Labour WhatsApp group he described late American psychologist  Marshall Rosenberg as sounding 'too Jewish', 'militaristic' and wondered if he was a member of Israel's secret service Mossad.

And in 2018, the Gorton and Denton MP was exposed as a member of another Labour group where anti-semitic messages were exchanged,

On that occasion he claimed he had been added to the Facebook group without his permission or knowledge.

His latest comments have been criticised by the Jewish Labour Movement (JLM).

In a statement today, the group said: "JLM is appalled by the vile anti-semitic, racist and discriminatory comments made by Andrew Gwynne MP.

"The Prime Minister is right to have taken swift and tough action in sacking him and suspending his Labour membership.

"There must be no room for hatred like this in our party."

The MP posted messages in a group called Trigger Me Timbers, which he shared with local Labour Party supporters and local councillors, including his wife, who serves on Tameside Council.

Gwynne posted sexist comments about his fellow Tameside MP, Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner and a racist message about veteran Labour MP Diane Abbott.

He also said he hoped a 72-year-old woman who complained about her bins would die before the next election.

Just a few weeks ago, Mr Gwynne wrote movingly about the importance of Holocaust Memorial Day in the Tameside Reporter and how a trip to Auschwitz had emotionally affected him.

He said: "In 2023, I visited the camp. What I saw there will stay with me forever. It was a completely traumatic experience. The scale of murder there was at an industrial scale, beyond any comprehension. The full weight of human cruelty exerted on an innocent population. It is a direct message from history on the dangers of political extremism and what happens when good people stay silent.

"Today, 80 years on, the memory of this horrendous atrocity is beginning to fade out of living memory. Each year, we sadly lose more and more of those that survived the camps, and with them, they take their invaluable firsthand accounts of what it was like to suffer through such an ordeal and the warning this carries with it. 

That is why this Holocaust Memorial Day is arguably the most important since that cold day in January 1945. Extremism is on the rise, suspicion of the other is mounting, and more communities feel vulnerable than in years gone by. Whilst racism and hatred don’t always lead to genocide, all genocides begin with them: the fear of the other, dehumanisation, and polarisation."