Chris Williamson runs for Parliament as independent
Rights and Accountability 6 November 2019
Chris Williamson announced his run by posting a letter to social media. (Chris Williamson/Twitter)
A high-profile target of Labour’s “anti-Semitism crisis” witch hunt on Wednesday quit the party, announcing an independent run for the UK’s Parliament.
Left-winger Chris Williamson, the current MP for Derby North in the Midlands, told The Electronic Intifada that he would stand in next month’s election as an independent socialist candidate.
“I have hundreds of activists from around the country ready and waiting to campaign for me in Derby,” Williamson said.
Labour’s ruling National Executive Committee decided earlier on Wednesday that Williamson, who was suspended pending investigation earlier this year, would not be allowed to stand as a Labour candidate in the 12 December general election.
Williamson said he had decided to quit rather than be expelled from the party for standing against a Labour candidate – which carries a potential five-year ban.
For the past two years, Williamson has been one of the primary targets of Labour’s internal Israel lobby. He has been the only MP to openly criticize the manufactured anti-Semitism crisis as “smears.”
The national executive’s decision flies in the face of a judge’s ruling last month. The High Court found that the party’s “re-suspension” of Williamson in June had been illegal.
However, Labour suspended him yet again on similar trumped-up charges in September, only the week before his court hearing. The judge did not overturn this subsequent suspension.
In a letter to Wiliamson on Wednesday, the party’s legal unit said he was “ineligible to represent the Labour Party and stand as a candidate” due to the suspension.
In a letter to Labour’s general secretary Jennie Formby on Wednesday, Williamson responded by quitting the party, saying he believed that party officials had enabled the witch hunt, and that the legal and governance unit should be dismantled.
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