Countdown’s Rachel Riley hits out at Labour politician who joked about ‘Jew process’ and raised a laugh by changing words of famous Holocaust poem in new anti-Semitism row
- Rachel Riley, 33, called Jo Bird’s comments ‘stomach turning’ and ‘sickening’
- Wirral Councillor Ms Bird made comments at meeting in Manchester last year
- She quotes First They Came poem saying: ‘And then they came for the socialists but they couldn’t get us because we were having a party, the Labour Party’
Countdown’s Rachel Riley, 33, pictured in Westminster in October 2018, has said Councillor Jo Bird’s comments at the meeting last year are ‘sickening’ and ‘stomach turning’
Rachel Riley has today slammed a Labour politician for making jokes about ‘Jew process’ and changing the words of a poem about the Holocaust during a speech.
The Countdown star, 33, called the comments by Labour councillor Jo Bird ‘stomach turning’ and said antisemitism in the party is ‘beyond a joke and deeply worrying.’
In a recording leaked to the Jewish Chronicle of a meeting last year, cllr Bird joked that the term ‘due process’ should be dubbed ‘Jew process’.
The meeting in Manchester was in support of Marc Wadsworth, who was expelled from the party last April after haranguing Jewish MP Ruth Smeeth at the launch of a report into antisemitism in the Labour party.
Cllr Bird is thought to have been defending Ken Livingstone, who left Labour after being accused of antisemitism. She is a member of Jewish Voice for Labour, a pro-Corbyn group, and claims to be Jewish.
During her speech, she called for the party to ‘pause’ disciplinary hearings into antisemitism ‘until a due process has been established.’
After pausing for an applause from the audience, Ms Bird jokes: ‘It’s what I call a Jew process.’
Many people laugh and she pauses again until the laughter stops, before saying: ‘Privileging one group over another is divisive and is bad for the many as well as bad for the Jews.’
‘Seriously, one of the things that does worry me is the privileging of racism against Jews, over and above – as more worthy of resources than other forms of racism.’
Wirral Councillor Jo Bird, pictured at the Ways Forward 6 Conference: Co-operative Solidarity in February, jokes on the recording that ‘due process’ is what she calls ‘Jew process’
She ended her speech by quoting from German Pastor Martin Niemoller’s poem about how silence led to the holocaust ‘First They Came’ – but changed the words to reference ‘anti-zionists’ and ‘having a party’.
Ms Bird said: ‘They came for the anti-zionists, and I stood up because I was not a target, I stood up in solidarity.
‘And then they came for the socialists but they couldn’t get us because we were having a party, the Labour Party.’
Countdown’s Rachel Riley slammed the comments ‘sickening’ on Twitter and shared a picture of Pastor Martin Niemoller’s poem First They Came
Slamming the comments on the recording, Rachel Riley wrote: ‘Absolutely aghast listening to JVL’s Jo Bird, take a poem about the Holocaust, remove the Jews, to replace them with persecution of anti-racists and anti-Zionists.
‘But don’t worry, they couldn’t get them as they were ‘too busy having a party – the Labour Party. Sickening.’
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In a second tweet the Countdown star said: ‘Notice the laughter and applause to these stomach turning comments, and then tell me there’s no institutional problem of antisemitism in the Labour Party. It’s beyond a joke and it’s deeply worrying.’
Also heard on the recording is Chris Williamson, who was also expelled from Labour last week.
Mr Williamson, 62, was forced to issue a grovelling apology after footage showed him saying that the party had been ‘too apologetic’ over anti-Jewish abuse claims.
Jewish Voice for Labour (JVL), is a fringe group that sprang up to defend Corbyn and claims to represent Jewish Labour members.
Chris Williamson and Marc Wadsworth were among the other speakers at the event and can also heard on the recording.
Chris Williamson, pictured in February 2018, was suspended by Labour last week over comments claiming the party was ‘too apologetic over anti-Semitism’
The JC reports that they were at a Justice4Marc meeting, in support of Marc Wadsworth who was expelled from Labour last April.
Mr Wadsworth reduced Jewish MP Ruth Smeeth to tears when he accused her of colluding with the press at the launch of Shami Chakrabarti report into anti-Semitism in July 2016.
He had a two-day disciplinary hearing last April and party chiefs kicked him out – but Mr Wadsworth came back claiming the Labour leader told mutual friends he did not think he had done anything wrong.
Mr Wadsworth, who said he and Mr Corbyn were ‘old friends and comrades’, claimed the Labour leader’s office said they were working ‘behind the scenes’ to help him.
Last week Chris Williamson was forced to issue an apology after footage showed him saying that the party had been ‘too apologetic’ over anti-Jewish abuse claims.
Furious Labour MPs led by deputy leader Tom Watson had demanded he lose the whip after the party announced an investigation into his behaviour.
But despite the internal probe having the power to ultimately kick him out of the party, a spokesman for Jeremy Corbyn said he would not be suspended while it was carried out.
Councillor Jo Bird has been approached by MailOnline for a comment.
Who was Pastor Martin Niemöller and what is his famous poem First They Came?
The Archbishop of Canterbury Geoffrey F. Fisher, left, with Pastor Martin Niemoller, right, in 1946
Martin Niemöller (1892–1984) was a prominent Lutheran pastor in Germany.
At first Niemöller welcomed the Third Reich and met Adolf Hitler in 1934 along with two Protestant bishops to discuss the pressure on churches.
It soon became clear that Niemöller’s phone had been tapped by the Gestapo and the pastor started to see Nazi rule as a dictatorship.
He became outspoken against Hitler and spent the last seven years of Nazi rule in concentration camps.
His famous quote reads: ‘First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a socialist.
‘Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out— because I was not a trade unionist.
‘Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—because I was not a Jew.
‘Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.’
JO BIRD’S SPEECH: First they came for the anti-racists and I stood up because I was a trade unionist.
‘Then they came for the anti-zionists and I stood up because I was not a target – I stood up in solidarity.
‘And then they came for the socialists but they couldn’t get us because we’re having a party – the Labour party.’
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