Siobhain McDonagh
 Siobhain McDonagh    | ||||||||||
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| Born | 20 February 1960 | |||||||||
| Alma mater | University of Essex | |||||||||
| Member of | Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China, Labour Friends of Israel | |||||||||
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Siobhain Ann McDonagh (born 20 February 1960) is a British Labour Party politician who has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Mitcham and Morden constituency since the 1997 UK General Election.[1]
Dismissed as Assistant Whip
In 2007, Siobhain McDonagh served as an Assistant Whip in the Labour Government, but was dismissed following comments regarding a leadership contest to replace prime minister Gordon Brown.[2]
Antisemitism in Labour
In March 2019, Siobhain McDonagh was interviewed on BBC Radio 4's Today Programme and asked if she thought the party was taking antisemitism seriously. McDonagh said:
- “I’m not sure that some people in the Labour Party can.
- “Because it’s very much part of their politics, of hard-left politics, to be against capitalists and to see Jewish people as the financiers of capital. Ergo you are anti-Jewish people.”
Interviewer John Humphrys then asked: “In other words, to be anti-capitalist you have to be anti-semitic?”
- “Yes,” she replied, smearing many party members before quickly backtracking slightly and adding: “Not everybody, but there is a certain strand of it.
- “These people are not Labour, have never been Labour, but we now find them in our party.”
Call for apology
Jewish Voice for Labour’s Mike Cushman told the Morning Star McDonagh owed party members an apology.
- “McDonagh seems to be suggesting that all or many Labour Party members believe that banks are controlled by Jews, classic Protocols of the Elders of Zion territory,” he said.
- “She draws the conclusion that, therefore, Labour’s critique of the financial casino activities that almost crashed the world economy is motivated by antisemitism.
- “She attacks conspiracy theorists by launching a bizarre conspiracy of her own.
- “She owes the tens and hundreds of thousands of party members who are campaigning for effective oversight of the banks a speedy and humble apology.
- “Fighting for a fairer society and against inequality and austerity is not a symptom of antisemitism. McDonagh cannot be allowed to silence criticism of capitalism within a socialist party.”[3]
References
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