Green candidate seen canvassing in London after arrest over alleged antisemitism | UK news
A Green council candidate arrested this week for allegedly anti-Semitic social media posts was later seen campaigning with other party members, prompting Labor to say the issue showed the issue was not being taken seriously by Zack Polanski’s party.
Sabine Mairey was one of two Green candidates arrested by the Metropolitan police in Lambeth, south London, on Thursday morning.
While the Greens refrained from commenting due to the police investigation, it is understood that Mairey is being investigated by party officials and is likely to be suspended in the coming days, while the other candidate, Saiqa Ali, has been suspended.
Mairey, although Green party rules say candidates under suspension or investigation should not campaign was in the picture He is campaigning in Clapham, where he was with a group of other party activists on Sunday.
It is understood this was unknown to the centrist party and Mairey will be contacted to remind her of the rules.
Labor said the incident showed a lack of leadership from Polanski, the Green leader in England and Wales. But green officials say this is also a result of a highly decentralized structure that gives significant power to local parties and makes actions such as removing candidates more time-consuming.
Polanski, who is Jewish, told BBC One’s Laura Kuenssberg on Sunday about the arrests of Green candidates and other incidents involving allegations of antisemitism that it was “not an abstract idea” for him and that it was extremely important to combat it.
“As a Jew, these comments disgust me. It is important that we do not allow the disciplinary process to take its place, and that is exactly what we have,” he said.
He rejected the idea that this was particularly prevalent among the Greens: “I don’t believe we have any particular problem in comparison. [with] wider society and other political parties.
Polanski said he rejected candidates who made such comments. “When asked if he would tell people here today: don’t vote for them, they are not on your side,” he replied: “That’s true.”
Both the women’s names and details were removed from the Lambeth Greens website’s candidate lists page on Thursday.
Housing and communities secretary Steve Reed, who was leader of Lambeth council before entering parliament, said: “The Green party is rotting from top to bottom. Shame on Polanski’s moral cowardice. No apology, no condemnation and no suspension.”
