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  1. Politics
14 March 2013

Lord Ahmed accused of blaming Jewish media owners for his prison sentence

Labour suspends peer after he is alleged to have blamed Jews "who own newspapers and TV channels" for his conviction for dangerous driving.

By George Eaton

 

Update 2: Ed Miliband has now responded to the story. Interviewed by ITV News, he said: “The comments reported by Lord Ahmed are disgraceful comments, there’s no place for anti-Semitism in the Labour Party and frankly anybody who makes those kind of comments cannot be a Labour lord or a Labour member of parliament.” 

That last point (“a Labour member of parliament”) could be read as a reference to the Lib Dems’ handling of David Ward. Ward accused “the Jews” of “inflicting atrocities on Palestinians … on a daily basis” but was not suspended from the party. 

Update: Labour has now suspended Ahmed pending an investigation. A party spokesman said: “The Labour Party deplores and does not tolerate any sort of racism or anti-semitism. Following reports in the Times today we are suspending Lord Ahmed pending an investigation.”

At the time of writing, Lord Ahmed is still a Labour peer but, if today’s reports are accurate, it is hard to see him remaining one. The Times writes that Ahmed blamed his prison sentence for dangerous driving on pressure placed on the courts by Jews “who own newspapers and TV channels”. He said: 

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My case became more critical because I went to Gaza to support Palestinians. My Jewish friends who own newspapers and TV channels opposed this. 

Ahmed is also accused of claiming that the judge who jailed him for 12 weeks was appointed to the High Court after helping a “Jewish colleague” of Tony Blair’s during an “important case”. The quotes are taken from an Urdu-language TV interview Ahmed gave in Pakistan in April last year. The peer, who was ennobled by Blair in 1998, has said that he has “no recollection” of giving the interview. “I’ve done a lot of interviews. If you’re saying that you have seen this footage then it may be so but I need to see the footage and I need to consult with my solicitors before I make any comments in relation to this

Labour has responded to the story by stating that it “deplores and does not tolerate any sort of racism or anti-Semitism” and that “it will be seeking to clarify these remarks as soon as possible”. It previously suspended Ahmed from the party after he was alleged to have offered a £10m bounty for the capture of Barack Obama and George Bush. It later revoked the suspension after the peer’s actual comments emerged. He said: “Even if I have to beg I am willing to raise and offer £10m so that George W Bush and Tony Blair can be brought to the International Court of Justice on war crimes charges”.

It is notable that Ahmed has denied the latest allegations less vociferously than on that occasion. In response to the “bounty” claims, he said that he was “shocked and horrified that this whole story could be just made up of lies”. With Ed Miliband already under pressure to withdraw the whip from Ahmed, the party is likely to act swiftly to establish the facts. 

 

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