Williamson ‘found it difficult’ to sever ties with expelled Labour member

Derby North MP Chris Williamson “found it hard” to sever ties with an ex-party member expelled over antisemitic tweets, a former aide claimed in a private message last year.

Sayed Umaar Kazmi, who worked as a communications officer, claimed the Labour MP was “reluctant” to distance himself from Scott Nelson due to his support for him.

Nelson, who ran the Twitter account @SocialistVoice, was expelled over antisemitic tweets, for which he later apologised. Among the material was an image of an Israel flag peeling away to reveal a swastika and the claim M&S and Tesco have “Jewish blood”.

“I work for Chris Williamson but I’m messaging you in a personal capacity and totally off the record,” Kazmi told the activist Gary Spedding in the leaked message.

“I did ask Chris to stop retweeting/defending [Scott Nelson] but, from his view, I genuinely think he finds it difficult to disassociate himself from someone he has formed a sort of relationship with,” he wrote.

“I don’t think they ever met, but Scott has been very friendly with Chris online in terms of giving him support/retweeting him.”

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