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Hypocrite newspaper ran race row Tory's columns

The Yorkshire Post, the newspaper that ‘broke’ the Williamson story, published articles by former Tory MP Patrick Mercer — who once called an Israeli soldier ‘a bloody Jew’

THE NEWSPAPER that “exposed” Chris Williamson MP for stating that Labour had been “too apologetic” over anti-semitism allegations published a column just days earlier written by a disgraced Tory politician who once called an Israeli soldier a “bloody Jew.”

The Yorkshire Post regularly publishes posts by Patrick Mercer, who resigned from Parliament five years ago after the Commons sleaze watchdog found he had used “racially offensive language” and accepted cash for questions.

Despite his scandal-ridden background, the Post has published over a dozen columns by Mr Mercer in the last 12 months.

Although there is no suggestion that Mr Mercer has said anything racist or anti-semitic in those columns, Mr Mercer’s controversial comments about minorities are a matter of public record.

In 2007 Mr Mercer, an ex-army officer, stepped down from David Cameron’s shadow cabinet after saying it was normal for a black soldier in the British Army to be called a “black bastard.”

“That’s the way it is in the army. If someone is slow on the assault course, you’d get people shouting ‘come on you fat bastard, come on you ginger bastard, come on you black bastard’,” he said in an interview.

In 2013, he was secretly filmed by an undercover BBC journalist complaining about a recent trip to Israel in which he was stopped by a soldier who he described as “an 18-year-old girl wearing uniform, but with her sort of hair in plaits and, and crazy jewellery and, and open-toed sandals.”

Mr Mercer then said the woman did not look like a soldier but that she instead looked like “a bloody Jew.”

He later apologised for the remark saying: “It’s a stupid thing to say … I have apologised fulsomely. I am married to a woman of Jewish extraction. I have lots of friends in the Jewish community.”

However his chequered past has not stopped the Yorkshire Post publishing his comment pieces, with one appearing as recently as Saturday.

The paper did not warn readers about his controversial past, simply describing him as “a former soldier” who was “Tory MP for Newark from 2001 to 2014.”

And just days after running their latest piece by Mr Mercer, the Post launched an attack on Labour leftwinger Chris Williamson MP.

On Tuesday, it published “a video posted by Sheffield Momentum and passed to The Yorkshire Post” which showed Mr Williamson saying the Labour Party had “backed off too much” in the face of anti-semitism allegations.

The story triggered national media coverage and led to Mr Williamson’s suspension from the Labour Party within 24 hours.

In the full video, Mr Williamson can be clearly heard calling anti-semitism a “scourge.”

He said: “The party that has done more to stand up to racism is now being demonised as a racist, bigoted party.

“I have got to say I think our party’s response has been partly responsible for that because in my opinion … we have backed off too much, we have given too much ground, we have been too apologetic … and we’ve done more to actually address the scourge of anti-semitism than any other political party.”

The Yorkshire Post journalist who wrote the story later said: “Regional papers are as relevant as ever in driving the news agenda, and the Yorkshire Post will continue to hold Westminster politicians to account.”

Jewish Voice for Labour secretary Glyn Secker told the Morning Star: “It is hypocritical for the Yorkshire Post to regularly publish articles penned by a disgraced Tory politician who appeared to exhibit blatant anti-semitism when he called an Israeli soldier a ‘bloody Jew.’

“This somewhat diminishes the Yorkshire Post’s moral authority to target Chris Williamson.

“It feels to me as if this campaign against Jeremy Corbyn has gone up a notch because Chris is a key member of Parliament who supports Jeremy and his policies to end austerity, redistribute wealth and achieve social justice.”

The Yorkshire Post’s editor declined to comment when approached by the Morning Star.

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