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Three Labour councillors suspended over alleged anti-Semitism

On Monday the party suspended three more members including Shah Hussain, a councillor in the northern town of Burnley, for a Tweet he wrote to Israeli footballer Yossi Benayoun in 2014.

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Ms Shah, before joining Labour, shared an allegedly anti-semitic post online, while Mr Livingstone clumsily highlighted links between the nazis and zionists in his attempts to defend her. “They could relocate even now”.

Mulla, whose Twitter profile said he was born in India, charged in an August 2015 Facebook post that Israel is behind ISIS.

In other posts he appeared to liken Israeli actions toward the Palestinians to those of the Nazis against Jews, referred to Israel as an illegal state, and made comments about “Zionist invaders”.

“We have therefore said they will be suspended and investigated”.

“I think I’m right in saying I don’t think there is a Jew in Britain who has given money centrally to the party since Jeremy Corbyn’s selection, because prior to his selection and since his selection, we have asked and asked for this to be dealt with”.

‘But not the population itself, it’s got nothing to do with them, it’s got nothing to do with the religion’.

After his suspension had been announced Mr Aziz said: “I have no comment at all”.

Among the most recent suspensions on Monday, Nottingham City Councilor Ilyas Aziz was found to have promoted the antisemitic blood libel by posting that Jews should “stop drinking Gaza blood”, while Blackburn with Darwen City Councilor Salim Mulla re-posted a message by previously suspended Labour lawmaker MP Naz Shah about the “relocation” of Israel to the U.S.

Party leader Jeremy Corbyn has launched an independent review of anti-Semitism and racism within its ranks.

Sadiq Khan indicated that his prospects of being elected London mayor on Thursday had been damaged by ex-City Hall chief Ken Livingstone’s highly-controversial comments linking Hitler and Zionism.

Ms Abbott, the Shadow International Development Secretary, claimed the bitter row was “a smear to say that the Labour Party has a problem with anti-Semitism”.

In a radio interview in London on Saturday, Livingstone refused to apologise for his comment, saying he wouldn’t apologise for “telling the truth”.

Senior Labour and trade union figures have denied Labour has a problem with anti-Semitism and accused Labour MPs of whipping up the issue as part of efforts to oust Jeremy Corbyn as leader.

Unite boss Len McCluskey also waded in to accuse Blairite MPs of “manipulating” anti-Semitism concerns in a bid to unseat the leader.

“I think many in the media are obsessed with this rather than what they should be obsessed with, which is the devastating crisis of inequality in our society”. He also claimed that the row had been deliberately stoked by “embittered Blairites”, who he said wanted to topple his long-term friend Corbyn from the Labour leadership.

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He accused “embittered” Labour MPs who disliked Corbyn, a long-time socialist who was elected a year ago, of trying to whip up the row to undermine his authority.

Former Blackburn mayor Salim Mulla