The claims of anti-Semitism within the Labour Party have disappeared from the front pages today, but there are still those trying their best to keep on about it. And one man who might have been best advised not to keep on about it is Alan Sugar, who has become embroiled in a most unseemly row over his Twitter activity.
Now should I send this Tweet or not? Decisions, decisions
Sugar is not shy when it comes to politics. Nor is he the backer of winners one might have imagined. He told Londoners not to vote for Sadiq Khan. Khan won. He backed Theresa May in last year’s General Election. She lost her majority. He hasn’t used the London Underground for decades, but moans about the capital’s traffic.
And he dislikes Jeremy Corbyn intensely. After last year’s election result, he dismissed many of those voting Labour, claiming “those people who voted for him are quite bright and educated, but also not very experienced in life”. So it should have been no surprise when he went in to the tackle with both feet on the latest Jezza row.
Posting a crude Photoshopped image showing Adolf Hitler and a figure with Corbyn’s head superimposed on it, he snarked “Many a true word spoken in jest Corbyn”. This must have seemed amusing to someone. But it went down like the proverbial cup of cold sick with many who saw it, the ensuing row even making the BBC news.
Kailash Chand, Honorary Vice President of the BMA, expressed his disgust at Sugar’s crude mockery. Would The Great Man reconsider posting the image? “Shut up” came the typically abrupt reply. Was it really some kind of joke? “It is a joke, but the angry brigade like to moan”. The problem was that the angry brigade was rather large this time.
Even Corbyn’s most vociferous critics condemned Sugar: John Mann responded “The use of Hitler/ Nazi comparators is demeaning, unwarranted and dangerous. You damage the fight against anti Semitism with this @Lord_Sugar. Withdraw this and apologise please”. But if he assumed Sugar would think again, he was wrong.
Instead, he went into “Look over there” mode, Tweeting “Suggest you look at who Jeremy Corbyn posed with for a picture yesterday. A Labour Party councillor for Milton Keynes who is the former second in command of the Milton Keynes Neo Nazi League”. The picture he used was actually taken two years ago, and the local party had satisfied themselves that the person concerned had renounced any kind of extremism.
Even shadow chancellor John McDonnell got the brush-off: “I am not the originator it has been doing the rounds. You need to get Corbyn to make a firm statement about antisemitism. There is no smoke without fire in Labour”. Jezza has been making “firm statements” all week, including a Passover message where he “said it was easy to denounce anti-Semitism abroad but sometimes harder to see it closer to home.”
Meanwhile, the verdict on this particular episode of the Twitter Apprentice is clear. Lord Sugar - You’re Fired.
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