Huddersfield MP apologises for alleged anti-Semitic tweet

A marketing campaign group has referred to as on a Labour MP to lose the get together whip over an alleged anti-Semitic tweet.

Barry Sheerman tweeted a few “run on silver shekels” in an obvious reference to a hearsay about two excessive profile Jewish businessmen lacking out on peerages.

The Huddersfield MP deleted the submit and mentioned he was “deeply sorry that my clumsy tweet has induced offence”.

The Marketing campaign In opposition to Antisemitism mentioned he ought to face disciplinary motion.

A spokesperson for the group mentioned: “Barry Sheerman’s first response on listening to that two distinguished Jewish businessmen supposedly missed out on peerages is to consider ‘silver shekels’, alluding in a single fell swoop to each basic and trendy anti-Semitic tropes about Jews corrupting politics with cash and being extra loyal to Israel than their very own international locations.”

After deleting the tweet Mr Sherman posted one other tweet saying: “I apologise for my earlier tweet. I didn’t intend the that means which has upset many, and I’m very sorry for the upset and offense I’ve induced.

“I’ll suppose extra rigorously in future and can mirror on this.”

He added in a later tweet: “I’ve fought antisemitism all my political life & have been a Labour Good friend of Israel since becoming a member of as a scholar on the LSE. I’m deeply sorry that my clumsy tweet has induced offence.”

In response to a different tweet, Mr Sheerman named the businessmen he was referring to as Philip Inexperienced and Richard Desmond.

In an announcement to his native Labour get together, he mentioned he was responding to Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s honours checklist and selected the businessmen’s names at random.

“I used to be so offended I used to be meaning to liken the locations within the Lords as a “thirty items of silver” sort of reward,” he wrote.

“This alone is an disagreeable factor to say however I attempted to be too intelligent and appeared up the forex which may have been used 2,000 years in the past, and located data suggesting it was the shekel,” he mentioned.

“I used this in my remark. In a separate remark, I additionally selected two wealthy businessmen who’ve acquired adverse press consideration as examples of the varieties of individuals being raised to the Lords by the federal government.

“It by no means entered my head once I was making that remark that the 2 individuals I discussed have been Jewish.

“I can see how offensive my feedback have been, given this, and I’m profoundly sorry. It was by no means my intention to make any implication about Jewish individuals, and I’m horrified that I inadvertently did so”.

Mr Sheerman added he could be “taking a relaxation” from Twitter.

In June, Labour chief Sir Keir Starmer dismissed MP Rebecca Lengthy-Bailey from her function as shadow training secretary saying she had retweeted an article containing an anti-Semitic conspiracy idea.

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