Labour councillor accused of ‘anti-Semitic posts’ campaigned for Sadiq Khan
- Oops!Something went wrong.Please try again later.
A Labour councillor who was suspended over claims he published anti-Semitic posts attacking “Jewish-owned” social media outlets went on to campaign for Sadiq Khan.
Tanweer Khan was reinstated in April, following a two-month investigation into the claims.
The councillor for Redbridge, east London, immediately resumed his activities as a Labour member, canvassing for Sadiq Khan’s campaign to be re-elected as Mayor of London.
Photographs of Mr Khan campaigning for the mayor and Labour’s London Assembly candidates were posted by local party members on X, formerly Twitter.
Following his reinstatement Mr Khan was re-listed on his Labour branch website as chairman of Mayfield Labour Party and chairman of the council’s pension fund committee. His name had been removed following his suspension.
Mr Khan, who has been tipped as a future Labour MP, denied that he wrote or posted anti-Semitic statements on his social media accounts, claiming the people responsible for them were “disgruntled former Labour Party members”.
‘Zionist billionaire’
The statements claimed Facebook was under the control of the Israeli government and allegedly described Mark Zuckeberg, its owner, as a “Zionist billionaire”, using what is widely seen as an anti-Semitic trope.
In May 2021, a statement was posted on Labayk – the social media app Mr Khan set up aimed at Muslims – that said: “I don’t understand why people are asking others on this platform to join their Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, WhatsApp groups etc. These are pretty much all Jewish-owned platforms.”
The following month, after Labayk was forced to close because of insufficient support from subscribers despite more than £150,000 being invested, a long statement again condemning rival platforms as “Jewish-owned” was posted under Mr Khan’s name.
It said: “If you use Facebook, Instagram, or WhatsApp, do not forget that you are directly strengthening the position of the Israeli government in killing innocent Muslims.
“This entire platform is owned by the Zionist billionaire Mark Zuckerberg, who has also time and time again helped the Israeli government by giving them funds so they can take illegal actions against innocent Muslims.”
It was later deleted but had by then been re-posted by several Facebook users.
Mr Khan said: “The national executive committee has concluded its investigation into the complaint against me in accordance with the Labour Party’s disciplinary procedures. The NEC has determined that I did not post the statement on the Labayk website (which was the subject of the investigation). The NEC has therefore decided to take no further action and my administrative suspension of Labour Party membership has been lifted.”
‘Trying to bring me down’
Mr Khan had earlier denied writing or posting the anti-Semitic statements, telling The Telegraph: “None of these comments were made or posted by me. When I first became aware of these, back in late 2021, I immediately reported them to the Labour Party myself.
“These comments were posted through the nefarious actions of some disgruntled former Labour Party members in Ilford South. I was able to provide the Labour Party with evidence to substantiate this.”
Mr Khan also denied previously posting a disturbing image that appeared on Labayk showing Emmanuel Macron, the French president, with a boot print on his face. There were fears this would be interpreted by some as a call for violent action against Mr Macron, especially in the context of recent terror attacks in France.
Mr Khan said: “These were not posts made by me. There were so many people trying to bring me down, and went to the length of posting fake stuff pretending to be me on Labayk.
“Just because the posts may have my name/photo on them doesn’t mean that I created them. It was one of the many reasons we decided to shut the platform down as it became a vehicle for people to spout the kind of hate other platforms wouldn’t accept – and neither would we.”
Labour sources said this week that they could not comment on the outcome of its investigation or on Mr Khan’s readmission to the party as the process was confidential.
Mr Khan stood unsuccessfully for nomination as the Labour parliamentary candidate in Pendle and Clitheroe, Lancashire, last October. He has previously campaigned alongside Wes Streeting, the shadow health secretary and MP for Ilford North.
The complaint over anti-Semitic statements followed an earlier Labour investigation into Mr Khan’s behaviour over allegations that he had made racist comments at a meeting of the Ilford South Constituency Labour Party in March 2019.
It was claimed that in a reference to Fiona Onasanya, the former Peterborough MP who was jailed after being found guilty of lying over a speeding ticket, Mr Khan told the meeting: “We didn’t want to be like Peterborough that elected a black woman MP who turned out to be a criminal.”
Mr Khan denied that he made the comments. He said that false allegations had been made against him and a complaint was lodged with the Labour Party. He said he fully cooperated with the complaints procedure, the case was closed in January 2020, and he was informed that he had no further case to answer.
A letter from Labour’s head office seen by The Telegraph states that Mr Khan was issued with a formal warning in June 2019, over previous content he was stated to have posted on social media, which was found to be incompatible with the party’s rules and code of conduct on “anti-Semitism and other forms of racism”.
Mr Khan said: “I have not received any formal warning by Labour, in June 2019 or at any other time, about anything whatsoever.”
