Over 30 Labour Party MPs have joined a new parliamentary group to “support and champion” the work of the far-left George Soros’ Open Society Foundations-cash recipient “anti-hate” group Hope not Hate.
The “Labour Hope not Hate Parliamentary Group” will be chaired by Barnsley East MP Stephanie Peacock, according to an announcement made by the far-left activist group on Twitter Tuesday.
According to the far-left activist group, the new Labour group will “campaign in Parliament on key issues in the fight against fascism, the far-right & extremism.”
Ms Peacock announced her participation in the group in an article published Tuesday in which she called for action against far-right groups online claiming young people, especially are being radicalised on the internet.
Peacock blamed “unregulated online spaces” such as the video platform Bitchute and the messaging app Telegram for spreading “hate and misinformation” and added, “It has led to a spiral of increasing extremism and international mass murder such as the Christchurch mosque attack.”
She also claimed that U.S. President Donald Trump had “embraced the worst impulses of nationalism and xenophobia,” and added repeated to “very fine people” hoax which has been debunked many times in the past.
While the new project is supported by the deputy leader of the Labour Party Angela Rayner, who is listed under “supporters and champions”, Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer’s name did not appear in the announcement.
Starmer posted a supportive Tweet of the far-left group in May of this year, however, and publicly bent the knee to the Black Lives Matter movement in June but later backtracked on his support for the movement.
The Labour Hope not Hate parliamentary group’s foundation comes after its director and campaigner Ruth Smeeth lost her parliamentary seat for Stoke-On-Trent in the 2019 election.
Hope not Hate have received funding from left-wing Hungarian-American billionaire George Soros’s Open Society Foundation in the past and have caused controversy after calling for a ban on books at several UK retailers.
The book ban was slammed by anti-extremism activist Maajid Nawaz who said, “It’s said: ‘Those who start by burning books, finish by burning people’. How are you any different to those imbeciles demanding the Quran be banned in Europe? Get a grip!”
In 2018, the Swedish Defence Research Agency (FOI) included the group in a report on far-left and anarchist extremism alongside the Swedish Expo Foundation, which has also been funded by Mr Soros’ Open Society Foundations in the past.
The FOI report states that far-left extremists often rely on and request information on right-wing opponents from groups like Hope not Hate and Expo saying, ” They want to hold to account in some way (for example by visiting people’s homes with threats and harassment) and sometimes they want information, names and pictures, to publicly identify those involved in nationalist movements.”