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The Evening Standard JULY 9, 2019 - by Staff Writers

CELEBRITY-LED CAMPAIGN BACKS CHRIS WILLIAMSON

A celebrity-led campaign featuring Yanis Varoufakis and Roger Waters is calling for controversial suspended MP Chris Williamson to be reinstated by the Labour Party today.

Former Greek finance minister Varoufakis and Pink Floyd co-founder Waters appear alongside a host of names including film directors Ken Loach and Mike Leigh, musician Brian Eno and actor Miriam Margolyes in the Campaign for Chris Williamson, arguing that Labour's anti-Semitism woes are part of a "confected crisis". Williamson was suspended by Labour in February after claiming the party had been "too apologetic" over anti-Semitism. He was readmitted last month following an internal party ruling but was suspended once more after a furious backlash from his fellow Labour MPs. The Campaign for Chris Williamson claims he is a "lifelong anti-racist campaigner" who was "at the forefront of the movement that brought Jeremy Corbyn to the leadership of the Labour Party". It also says Williamson made the case "for the party to take a more sophisticated approach in its response to the confected crisis" of anti-Semitism, and adds that the approach to anti-Semitism within the party is "one based on credulity and capitulation" rather than being "evidence-based, historically literate" and founded on "the principles of natural justice".

The Derby North MP faces a crunch meeting today at Labour's National Executive Committee where he could be expelled from the party. The Campaign for Chris Williamson encouraged its followers to "please support the independently organised lobby taking place outside Labour HQ". Protesters gathered outside the party's Victoria offices this morning.

Labour London Assembly member Tom Copley today blasted Williamson as "an utter careerist, albeit not a very effective one".

"It's extraordinary that anyone on the Left would dedicate such energy to defending Chris Williamson," Copley wrote of the campaign, adding: "He's toadied up to every single Labour leader - even doing PFIs under Blair."

A Board of Deputies of British Jews spokesperson told The Londoner:

"Chris Williamson has lost no opportunity to bait the Jewish community over antisemitism. For a small number of pseudo-celebrities to endorse him and deny anti-Jewish racism in the Labour Party is unacceptable."