Calls for Huddersfield MP Barry Sheerman to face disciplinary action over 'anti-Semitic' tweet

Campaigners have called for Huddersfield MP Barry Sheerman to lose the party whip following allegations that he posted an anti-Semitic tweet.

In the tweet, which has since been deleted, Mr Sheerman joked about a "run on silver shekels" in reference to rumours that businessmen Philip Green and Richard Desmond had missed out on peerages.

Both men are Jewish.

Mr Sheerman later said he was "deeply sorry" over his "clumsy tweet".

But the Campaign Against Antisemitism said he should face disciplinary action.

A spokesperson said: "Barry Sheerman's first reaction on hearing that two prominent Jewish businessmen supposedly missed out on peerages is to think about 'silver shekels', alluding in one fell swoop to both classic and modern anti-Semitic tropes about Jews corrupting politics with money and being more loyal to Israel than their own countries."

The initial tweet from Mr Sheerman prompted a wave of criticism on social media, with some pointing out that the MP had supported Labour leader Keir Starmer's decision to sack the shadow eduction secretary Rebecca Long-Bailey, after she shared an allegedly anti-Semitic article.

Mr Sheerman later tweeted that he had "fought antisemitism all my political life" and in a statement to his local Labour party, he said he was responding to Prime Minister Boris Johnson's honours list and chose the businessmen's names at random.

"I was so angry I was intending to liken the places in the Lords as a "thirty pieces of silver" type of reward," he wrote.

"This alone is an unpleasant thing to say but I tried to be too clever and looked up the currency that might have been used 2,000 years ago, and found information suggesting it was the shekel," he said.

"I used this in my comment. In a separate comment, I also chose two rich businessmen who have received negative press attention as examples of the types of people being raised to the Lords by the government.

"It never entered my head when I was making that comment that the two people I mentioned were Jewish.

"I can see how offensive my comments have been, given this, and I am profoundly sorry. It was never my intention to make any implication about Jewish people, and I am horrified that I inadvertently did so".

Mr Sheerman added he would be "taking a rest" from Twitter.