British Prime Minister Boris Johnson told a member of the Labour Party on the floor of Parliament on March 4 that her party engaged in anti-Semitic “bullying and discrimination.”
Labour Party Member of Parliament (MP) Thangam Debbonaire was questioning Johnson about allegations that Home Secretary Priti Patel had bullied her staff during her 2016-17 tenure as international development secretary.
Johnson, who has defended Patel, said in response to Debbonaire, “I loathe bullying but I am not taking any lessons from any party that has presided over systematic bullying and discrimination against those who stick up for the Jewish community and for Israel in this country, and we’ve still yet to hear a proper apology from the Labour Party, from Labour leadership for what they’ve done.”
"I loathe bullying but I am not taking any lessons from any party that has presided over systematic bullying and discrimination against those who stick up for the Jewish community and #Israel"- @BorisJohnson at #PMQs pic.twitter.com/quLSdfmU5g
— Self Declared Zionists (@SussexFriends) March 4, 2020
StandWithUs tweeted, “Thank you for standing up to #antisemitism UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson!”
Thank you for standing up to #antisemitism UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson! https://t.co/ij18CG8Ag5
— StandWithUs (@StandWithUs) March 5, 2020
In February, the Labour Party expelled 25 members over allegations of anti-Semitism; in 2019, several Labour members resigned from the party, saying that leader Jeremy Corbyn had enabled anti-Semitism to rise in the party. Corbyn stepped down as Labour leader in December after his landslide defeat to Johnson.
Johnson said in December that he plans to pass a law cracking down on the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement.
“We will stop public bodies from taking it upon themselves to boycott goods from other countries, to develop their own pseudo-foreign policy against countries, which with nauseating frequency turns out to be Israel,” he said.
