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Britain’s Liberal Democrats have dropped Geeta Sidhu-Robb as one in every of their candidates for London mayor and suspended her from the occasion after a video emerged of her making anti-semitic remarks throughout the 1997 basic election.
The lawyer and businesswoman, who has roots in Punjab, was the Conservative candidate in Blackburn, Lancashire within the 1997 election. Her opponent was senior Labour chief Jack Straw.
Footage from that election marketing campaign, revealed by PoliticsHome web site, exhibits Sidhu-Robb saying she deliberate to tell voters about Straw’s religion, including, “how is a Muslim going to vote for someone who is Jewish?”
She is then seen going round in a automotive in Blackburn, interesting to voters on a loudspeaker in Urdu.
“Don’t vote for a Jew, Jack Straw is a Jew,” she is seen as saying about her rival candidate, who held varied cupboard positions within the Tony Blair and Gordon Brown governments, together with as overseas secretary.
Straw is a Christian, however has some Jewish ancestry. The Blackburn constituency has a big Muslim minority, round 25% of the inhabitants.
The video sparked an investigation by Liberal Democrats, the third largest occasion in UK after Labour and Conservatives. A Liberal Democrats spokesperson mentioned: “Geeta Sidhu-Robb has been suspended from the Liberal Democrats and will not be on the ballot paper to be the Liberal Democrat candidate for Mayor of London”.
Sidhu-Robb apologised after the footage emerged. “I am deeply ashamed of the ignorant and abusive language I used on one occasion in the 1997 General Election campaign. As shown in the footage, I instantly regretted my appalling behaviour, which I continue to do,” she tweeted.
“Those words are entirely inconsistent with my views and values, and though there are no excuses for my actions, there is some context; that is, that I was under a great deal of strain and retaliated to the racial abuse I was receiving in Blackburn ‘like for like’.”
“Two wrongs never make a right. I made a mistake and I take responsibility for my abhorrent actions 23 years ago, they were never repeated. I urge you to judge me on who I am today, a campaigner committed to eradicating inequality and discrimination in all its forms,” she added.
The London mayoral election was due in May, however has been postponed as a result of coronavirus pandemic.
Sidhu-Robb was shortlisted for the mayoral candidacy alongside Liberal Democrats councillor Luisa Porrit, with the competition on account of run till October 13. The occasion, which fashioned a coalition authorities with the Conservatives below David Cameron from 2010 to 2015, is finalising its candidate after Siobhan Benita, who was to contest in opposition to mayor Sadiq Khan, withdrew lately.
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