Welsh Labour deputy minister sends email for HMD event without mention of Jewish victims

Welsh Conservatives have expressed “shock” after a Labour deputy minister sent out an invite for a Holocaust Memorial Day event that appeared to downplay the six million Jewish victims of the Shoah.

An emailed invitation sent out from the office of Julie Morgan, Welsh Labour’s deputy minister for social services, was titled ‘Holocaust Memorial Day 2023: Gypsies, Roma and Travellers – Remembering All’.

It includes no mention at all of the largest group of victims killed by Nazi Germany.

Morgan has represented Cardiff North since 2010, and is the sponsor of next week’s HMD event.

Laura Anne Jones, Conservative MS for South Wales East, told Spectator columnist Steerpike she was: “Shocked that it was deemed appropriate to send this invite out without mention of Jewish people.

“I am disappointed and confused as this event should be about remembering everyone effected by the Holocaust, and of course that clearly includes Jews.”

A spokesperson for Morgan said:”This is a long-standing annual event being sponsored in Julie Morgan MS’s capacity as an individual Senedd Member.

“The event has always received cross-party support and ties in with the annual Holocaust Memorial Day event at the Senedd.

“This is an inclusive event, and as the invitation makes clear, the event aims to remember all victims of the Holocaust, including those who can often be forgotten about.”

Morgan later said: “I unreservedly apologise.

“At no point did I want to exclude the appalling atrocities inflicted on the six million Jews who were murdered by the Nazis during the Holocaust and I’d like to make it clear that the event remembers them along with all who died during the Holocaust.

“The invitation was not explicit, this was my mistake and I will be re-issuing it.”