Labour urged to investigate MP Kim Johnson over promotion of Islamist group
Liverpool Riverside MP also spoke at the latest pro-Palestine demo where she accused Israel of using drones to 'deliberately target children'
Lee Harpin is the Jewish News's political editor
Labour has been urged to investigate the conduct of the MP Kim Johnson after she promoted the activities of Islamist advocacy group CAGE on social media.
Last weekend the firebrand MP also sparked further communal anger when she told a pro-Palestine demo that the Israeli military was using drones to “deliberately target children” and carrying out “extermination” in Gaza.
Johnson, who replaced Louise Ellman as MP for Liverpool Riverside, raised eyebrows this week after using her platform on X to promote a film premier put on by Cage International which attempts to link miscarriages of justice around the Birmingham Six, in which which innocent Irish men were jailed, with those of convicted Islamist extremists.
The film, screened by Cage on Monday, claimed the Birmingham Four are “innocent men who were set up by police and have spent the last eight years in prison for a crime they didn’t commit.”
The Birmingham Four were Muslim men from the Midlands – Naweed Ali, Khobaib Hussain, Mohibur Rahman and Tahir Aziz – serving life sentences having been convicted in 2017 for planning a terrorist attack on UK soil.
As he confirmed their life sentences Old Bailey judge Justice Globe said the men were gripped by a “long-standing, radical, violent ideology”.
When police arrested the four men in August 2016 they found weapons including a meat cleaver and a partially constructed pipe bomb.
CAGE has repeatedly denies it supports terrorism in any way, claiming it operates as an advocacy group that “explores all avenues, including legal, to challenge the Government’s deep dive into authoritarianism”.
Jewish News understands Labour whips have been made aware of MP Johnson’s decision to promote the CAGE event.
A member of the MP’s local party also contacted Jewish News dismayed by her promotion of CAGE, adding “members are furious, it’s one thing after another with her”.
The Community Security Trust has long warned about the activities of CAGE, raising concerns about the group’s attitude to antisemitism and articles on their website which claimed the 9/11 attacks in New York were an insurance scam organised by a Zionist billionaire.
CAGE emerged as a campaign group against the “War on terror” launched by President George W Bush in the wake of the 2001 attacks on the US. It explicitly campaigned against what it said were abuses perpetrated against Muslims in Afghanistan and elsewhere – but its critics say it was often acting for terrorism suspects.
Its director Asim Qureshi also once described Mohammed Emwazi – who became known as “Jihadi John” for links to beheadings and other attacks in Syria, as a “beautiful young man” and revealed that the organisation had been in contact with him before he left Britain to fight for Islamic State.
In March, former Tory minister Michael Gove named CAGE as being among organisations that “give rise to concern for their Islamist orientation and views”.
But responding CAGE said Gove’s allegation was “a continuation of the decades-long strategy aimed at inciting and exploiting fears against Muslims to build an authoritarian and repressive infrastructure that suppresses any dissent that is not licensed by Whitehall.”
The French courts recently upheld a ban on CAGE director Muhammad Rabbani from entering the country over claims of spreading “conspiracies” regarding its treatment of Muslims.
But last Saturday, Johnson sparked further anger within the Jewish community after she appeared as a speaker at the latest pro-Palestine demonstration in central London.
Appearing on stage at the Palestine Solidarity Campaign event, the MP said she has met with Professor Nizam Mamode, a retired NHS surgeon, who has been volunteering in a Palestinian hospital in Gaza.
She told the protest: “He provided some documentary evidence of how Israeli drones are used to target, deliberately, children… firing at their major arteries, their bullets ricocheting in their bodies .”
Johnson also attacked Keir Starmer’s government saying it “needed to take more decisive action” and called for an “immediate arms trade embargo including parts for the F-35 bomber”.
She added: “The UK backed the apartheid regime in South Africa, but that regime was brought down to its knees … direct action and protest do work. We did it once. We can do it again. We need to stand shoulder to shoulder with our Palestinian comrades.”
Israel has denied Professor Mamode’s claims that it is deliberately targeting children with drones as “lies.”
In February 2023 Johnson apologised for describing Israel’s coalition government under Benjamin Netanyahu as “fascist”.
She made the comment in Parliament, as she asked former PM Rishi Sunak about “human rights violations” against Palestinians.
Johnson apologised shortly afterwards, after being ordered to do so by party bosses.
Jewish News has contacted Labour and Johnson for comment.
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