Labour activist who said Jewish MPs use Judaism to smear Corbyn avoids jail

A Labour supporter who accused Jewish MPs of “using Judaism as a weapon” to smear Jeremy Corbyn has narrowly avoided jail.

Nick Nelson, 29, who abused Jewish Labour MPs Luciana Berger and Ruth Smeeth in a series of offensive messages, was told by District Judge Tan Ikram at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on Monday that he was lucky not to be jailed.

Attacking those he saw as “Tories” and “traitors,” Nelson also told Labour MP Wes Streeting to kill himself, but it was his messages to Berger and Smeeth earlier this year that led Ikram to hand down a ten week prison sentence, suspended for 12 months.

Nelson pleaded guilty to two offences of “harassment without violence” as Ikram heard how he had sent “abusive and unpleasant” emails to Berger in March, before leaving similarly abusive telephone messages for Smeeth two months later. These were intercepted by Smeeth’s assistant Cathy Perry.

His lawyer said: “He felt, rightly or wrongly, that the two MPs were trying to destabilise the Labour Party and Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership.”

Nelson, who was listed as living in Cambridgeshire and believed to be Jewish himself, was told to complete 20 weeks’ community service, at the discretion of the probation officers. He was also handed a five-year restraining order against the MPs and ordered to pay costs plus a victim’s surcharge.