Questions Without Notice from the Party Leaders

Part of 1. Questions to the First Minister – in the Senedd at 1:57 pm on 16 July 2019.

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Photo of Mark Reckless Mark Reckless Conservative 1:57, 16 July 2019

Thank you for that answer. I wonder why that is thought not to be within the scope. One Labour staffer who bravely spoke to BBC Panorama said investigators were undermined, when given cases, by people wanting leniency on anti-Semitism, then taking those cases away. Often, that was people from Jeremy Corbyn's office, but isn't it also what you did, First Minister? I hear the previous First Minister muttering, but when one of your Assembly Members made what were widely considered to be anti-Semitic remarks, she was suspended from your group and your predecessor referred her to the Labour Party for investigation. Yet, according to The Jewish Chronicle, once you took over as First Minister, and I quote,

'No consideration was given to the fact that UK Labour had yet to conclude their investigation into her remarks', since, and I quote,

'she might have been a bit stupid', but this was 'our Jenny'. The Jewish Chronicle continued:

'Mark (Drakeford) and almost the entire group, barring Alun, Lynne and Vaughan seemed determined to get her back as quickly as they could.'

First Minister, many of your AMs oppose Jeremy Corbyn becoming your leader, and seem none too keen on him becoming Prime Minister, but you were one of his original supporters. Did you know then that he had complained when his council took down a grotesque anti-Semitic mural? Do you agree with him that Hobson's anti-Semitic book, Imperialism, was 'brilliant'? And what do you think Jeremy Corbyn meant when he said Zionists 'don't understand English irony'? First Minister, for how much longer will you and your party and your Government tolerate what your deputy leader rightly describes as anti-Jewish racism?