Labour is facing criticism today after launching an anti-Semitism probe into a prominent gender critical MP.
Rosie Duffield, 52, could be blocked from defending her Canterbury seat after the party began an investigation into her support for a trans activist’s tweet about Eddie Izzard, the comedian and Labour would-be politician.
Ms Duffield ‘liked’ a sardonic post by Father Ted and The IT Crowd creator Graham Linehan, which he made in response to Izzard’s comments that as a trans woman he probably would have been ‘murdered by the Nazis’.
The Irish comic had replied: ‘Ah yes, the Nazis, famously bigoted against straight white men with blonde (sic) hair.’
But supporters of Duffield suggested the probe was politically motivated because she was a rare transgender sceptic in the Labour Party. She is also a deputy chairwoman of the all-party parliamentary group (APPG) on anti-Semitism.
While she is being investigated she cannot be added to the list of possible candidates in Canterbury at the next election.
Mr Linehan said: ‘In today’s Labour, if you’re a straight white man hitching your fetish to the Holocaust, you’re golden. If you’re a woman who stands up to it, you’re investigated.’
Rosie Duffield, 52, could be blocked from defending her Canterbury seat after the party began an investigation into her support for a trans activist’s tweet about Eddie Izzard, the comedian and Labour would-be politician.
Ms Duffield ‘liked’ a sardonic post by Father Ted and The IT Crowd creator, which he made in response to Izzard’s comments that as a trans woman he probably would have been ‘murdered by the Nazis’.
Mr Linehan said: ‘In today’s Labour, if you’re a straight white man hitching your fetish to the Holocaust, you’re golden. If you’re a woman who stands up to it, you’re investigated.’
And journalist Stephen Pollard said: ‘As editor of the Jewish Chronicle I spent the years after Corbyn became Labour leader fighting the party’s anti-Semitism.
‘Most Labour MPs were either complicit in it or said nothing to upset party members. Rosie Duffield was one of the very few who refused to be cowed by the party’s Jew haters.
‘The idea that trans ideologues are using anti-Semitism as a stick with which to attack an MP who makes them look like the moral pygmies they are is grotesque. But typically so.’
A source told the Sunday Times, which revealed the investigation, that LGBT labour was behind the complaint, due to Ms Duffield’s trans views.
Izzard is a Labour activist who wants to run to become an MP in Brighton, after a previous failed attempt to be elected in Sheffield and as London mayor.
In January this year it was revealed a senior aide to Sir Keir said ‘it would be nice’ if she ‘spent a bit more time’ in her constituency, rather than ‘hanging out with JK Rowling’.
They said: ‘They have made a cynical calculation that complaints of anti-Semitism are more likely to result in action being taken against her than complaints about her gender-critical views, especially now they are party policy.’
Ms Duffield is Labour’s sole MP in Kent, taking a seat in 2017 that had been Tory for 100 years.
She has since repeatedly clashed with Sir Keir Starmer and the rest of the party leadership over gender ideology.
In January this year it was revealed a senior aide to Sir Keir said ‘it would be nice’ if she ‘spent a bit more time’ in her constituency, rather than ‘hanging out with JK Rowling’.
The Harry Potter author has been an outspoken advocate for women’s rights, including the need to protect single-sex spaces.
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