Mick Hartley

From the JC:

A North-East Labour MP has been revealed as a director of a website alleged to have published antisemitic material.

Research by Labour Against Antisemitism found that Grahame Morris, who represents the Easington constituency in County Durham, is a founding director of Palestine Deep Dive.

The Mail on Sunday reported that Mr Morris had confirmed he was a trustee of PDD – described as an “education company” publishing media reports on Israel and Palestine – and that he had failed to declare his directorship to parliamentary authorities.

Mr Morris said that although a director of PDD’s board of trustees, he was not involved in its editorial decisions. He apologised for not registering his directorship in the Commons.

The MoS also reported that last May, PDD published a blog by former South African politician Ronnie Kasrils claiming “Israel’s racism” had "let loose the pogroms so reminiscent of Czarist times and Kristallnacht in Germany, 1938”.

Pink Floyd’s Roger Waters is a PDD supporter…

That's really all you need to know.

…and PDD had to apologise for claims in a 2020 interview that BBC’s Panorama programme had helped run a “smear campaign” against Labour with its 2019 investigation into antisemitism within the party. The apology accepted that “some opinions” advanced during the interview about the BBC, the programme and the journalist, John Ware, were “incorrect and have caused personal offence”.

Calling for the whip to be withdrawn from the MP, Labour Against Antisemitism’s Alex Hearn said: “It is difficult to see how Mr Morris can justify his involvement with this website.

Grahame Norris has form. From April 2019:

Grahame Morris was forced to issue a grudging apology after coming in for a wave of criticism on Twitter.

However, he initially refused to delete his original tweet, which actually showed footage of Guatemalan troops filmed in 2015.

The video was originally tweeted by Corbynista account Rachael Swindon, but eventually removed after the mistake was pointed out.

Mr Morris, the MP for Easington, shared that post with the message: "Marvellous, absolutely marvellous the Israeli Army, the best financed, best trained, best equipped army in the world caught on camera beating up Palestinian children for the fun of it. May God forgive them."