Anti-racism charity pulls award for artist who supported former MP Chris Williamson

An anti-racism charity has withdrawn an award given to an artist, after it emerged he appeared to deny claims of antisemitism in Labour and had been pictured with former MP Chris Williamson.

Hope Not Hate announced that Joe Solo had won a Hope Hero award for a project aimed at tackling poverty.

The artist was one of three winners to land an award in a public vote.

But it emerged that the singer was responsible for a series of social media posts – including showing him pictured with ex Labour MP Williamson.

He wrote on the February 2019 post: “Solidarity with Chris Williamson tonight.” He shared a similar message in September 2018.

At the time Williamson was suspended by Labour for saying the party was “too apologetic” over antisemitism.

There were also other tweets from the singer on antisemitism.

In a joint statement on Wednesday the charity and union said they had decided to withdraw the award from the singer.

They said they would not make the “same mistakes” as Labour over antisemitism.

Apologising to “friends and comrades” who had been “hurt by this saga” they offered the singer the opportunity of antisemitism training to learn from his mistakes.

See Hope Not Hate’s statement here: