Senior Unite official pulls out of Corbyn event with expelled Labour member

A senior Unite union official has pulled out of a pro-Jeremy Corbyn event featuring expelled Labour activist Tony Greenstein.

The trade union’s Assistant General Secretary for Politics and Legal,  Howard Beckett, will no longer take part in an online discussion due to happen today at 7pm.

Unite told Jewish News: “Howard Beckett has pulled out of this event”, entitled “Reinstate Corbyn! Socialism will not be Silenced”, and hosted by Brighton & Hove Labour Left Alliance.

This comes after the former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn was suspended by the party in wake of the Equality and Human Rights Commission’s report into antisemitism. He claimed accusations of Jew-hate had been “dramatically overstated” during his tenure. Last week, Unite’s General Secretary Len McCluskey branded the suspension “unjust”, as more than 60,000 signed a petition for his reinstatement.

The event features Jewish anti-Zionist Tony Greenstein who was kicked out of Labour in February 2018, for “offensive comments online; offensive posts and comments on his blog; and an email in which he mocked the phrase ‘final solution’”. He has also been booted out from Unison trade union.

It also includes speakers Cllr Nicki Brennan, a ‘socialist independent’ official, who the event says was “forced to resign from Labour”, and Greg Hadfield, the former secretary of Brighton District Labour Party.

According to Tony Greenstein’s personal blog, Beckett has been replaced on the panel by ex Labour MP Chris Williamson. The former Derby North MP caused outrage after claiming Labour had been “too apologetic” about dealing with antisemitism.

Howard Beckett has been approached for comment.