Labour lifts suspension of activist who sent ‘Jewish donors’ tweet to Tom Watson

A Labour activist’s suspension has been lifted just eight weeks after he made comments about Deputy Leader Tom Watson being in the pay of “Jewish donors”.

George McManus announced the disciplinary action was over Twitter, following his remarks in August which were condemned by Momentum as ‘appalling and antisemitic’.

He said: “I’m delighted that my Labour Party suspension has been lifted. Time to get back into the ring. Britain needs a Labour government. #HopenotHate. Corbyns coming.” 

McManus was backed by Momentum and was standing for a place on Labour’s National Policy Forum when he made the remark. He tweeted that the Electoral Commission had stated that Watson had received “£50,000+ from Jewish donors”, adding “at least Judas only got 30 pieces of silver”.

The activist deleted his Twitter comment and apologised to Watson, but was nevertheless suspended hours later.

The comment was made the subject of an official complaint by  Watson’s colleague, Luciana Berger. She and other MPs, such as Wes Streeting, denounced it as anti-Semitic.

Momentum’s official account tweeted condemnation of “the appalling, antisemitic comment made by George McManus”, adding that he was “rightly suspended” and that “we will not tolerate any antisemitism, racism or online abuse from candidates we support.”

A Labour Party spokesperson said: “The Labour Party takes all complaints of antisemitism extremely seriously and we are committed to challenging and campaigning against it in all its forms. All complaints about antisemitism are fully investigated in line with our rules and procedures and any appropriate disciplinary action is taken.”

McManus apologised online to Watson, writing at the time “for my drawing an analogy between accepting money from Jewish donors and the biblical story of the betrayal by Judas.

“I fully accept that such an analogy is wrong and am sorry for making the comparison. I have now deleted the original post.”