Galloway party not standing Passover slur candidate in Finchley and GG

George Galloway’s Workers Party of Britain is not fielding a candidate in Finchley and Golders Green after concerns were raised about a proposed candidate sharing an antisemitic caricature of the Jewish passover festival.

Final nominations for the north London seat confirm that Mez Roth (Derak), who was initially listed as standing in the seat, has now not been officially registered.

Jewish News last week reported on a 2019 social media post, which showed he had  shared The Story of Passover image and article which claimed the meaning of the festival was one in which “God Kills A Bunch Of Babies, Except The Jewish Ones” and “the celebration of the mass murder of children.”

The Who Can I Vote For? election website confirmed that eight candidates are standing on July 4th in the country’s most Jewish constituency – Alex Deane, Conservative, Brendan Donnelly, Rejoin EU, Sarah Hoyle, Liberal Democrat, Katherine Murphy, Party of Women, Steve Parsons, Green, Giuseppe Pezzulli, Reform UK, Sarah Sackman, Labour, and Michael Shad, independent.

Jewish News attempted to contact the Workers Party for comment on Roth’s Passover post, but received no response.

On Sunday, Deane, the local Conservative candidate defended the tone of a book he had written in 2005 called The Great Abdication,  in which he said the notion “that all cultures are equally valid” has risked undermining Britain’s culture. In his championing of traditional values, he wrote: “We must teach people to be prejudiced once again.”

Dean told The Observer newspaper  the comment on cultures was about being robust in asserting liberal democratic values. 

He said the comment on prejudice was elaborating on a quote from former prime minister John Major about the benefits of a rules-based society in which “we should condemn a little more and understand a little less.”