Jackie Walker deletes post on anti-Semitic Sunday Times column

Controversial Labour activist Jackie Walker has deleted a Facebook post about an anti-Semitic Sunday Times article out of concern it would be mistaken as support for its author.

The former Momentum campaigner wrote “really??? For goodness sake…” alongside a link to an article accusing the newspaper of anti-Semitism. This came after it published the column in which author Kevin Myers claimed BBC presenters Claudia Winkleman and Vanessa Feltz are well paid because they are Jewish.

Walker, who’s been suspended by Labour and has left pro-Jeremy Corbyn campaign group Momentum, hastily removed her post claiming people may “mistake [her] disbelief” for support of the author.

“I was in a state of total disbelief. It was unbelievable that such an anti-semitic piece of garbage should get through. Then I realised that some people might mistake disbelief for something else, so I took it down and replaced it with something that makes my disgust of this quite clear” she told Jewish News. Walker then published three more posts about the Times column outlining her shock.

On Monday, after the Sunday Times sacked Kevin Myers, the editor of the Sunday Times, Martin Ivens called Jewish Leadership Council Chairman Jonathan Goldstein to apologise to the community.

Goldstein said: “We will meet in September and Mr Ivens has agreed then to discuss how this article managed to get through the editorial process.

“I am grateful for the swift initial steps taken by Mr Ivens. However, given the record-breaking rise in anti-Semitic incidents reported by CST and anti-Semitism’s unfortunate prominence in our national discourse over recent months, it is the editorial process that remains a concern.