Scottish Labour has expressed its “deep regret” over selecting a woman who had allegedly made antisemitic social media posts in the past as its candidate to fight the seat of Falkirk in December’s snap general election.
The Labour Party said it took “immediate action” to remove “Community Development Practitioner” Safia Ali as their candidate in the election — but likely not fast enough to have her appear on the ballot paper alongside the logo, title, and election slogan of the Labour Party.
Postal ballots for the election have already been printed and posted in many constituencies, and it is possible some in the Falkirk area may have already cast their vote for Safia Ali before she was dropped by the party Thursday.
The exact nature of the Antisemitic social media posts has not been revealed, but the BBC quotes the remarks of Scottish Labour general-secretary Michael Sharpe, who said of Mr Ali: “I deeply regret the people of the Falkirk constituency will no longer have a Labour candidate to campaign and vote for on 12 December.
“There is no place for anti-Semitism, or any form of racism and bigotry, in our party. That is why Labour is taking robust action to root it out of our movement and wider society.”
The party excused itself for not having detected the posts earlier, saying they had been made on a defunct account.
While all Safia’s social media accounts have now been deactivated, social media posts by the Edinburgh & Lothians Regional Equality Council show Ali promoted as a guest speaker at their event An evening with Safia Ali, described as promoting “Diversity in public life”, with Ali herself described as a “Community Development Practitioner”.
PoliticsHome reports Ali is the third Scottish Labour candidate to stand down or be dismissed over antisemitism scandals in this election.
Antisemitism has persistently dogged Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour since the veteran of the hard left took the reins of the party. The degree to which Jews in the United Kingdom feel concern about the possibility of a Corbyn government was dramatically underlined earlier this week when the Chief Rabbi in the United Kingdom said Labour was “unfit for office”.
Given the opportunity to make amends with the Jewish community by apologising to Britain’s Jews for the Labour Party’s persistent failures in a television interview, Mr Corbyn refused to do so four times.