*Thread* Why is Doncaster councillor Tosh McDonald still in the Labour party? He represents so much of what went horribly wrong under Corbyn. He is an embarrassing relic, best jettisoned.

Let's start with something quite fundamental: opposing his own party in an election. 1/13

In November 2019, McDonald signed an open letter backing Chris Williamson's pitiful bid to win Derby North as an independent. Williamson had been forbidden from running for Labour after years of gross antisemitic agitation. 2/13 https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/letter-chris-williamson-can-go-letters-tomorrow-or-weds-online-today

The letter claimed Williamson was “the victim of one the most vigorous, vindictive and vituperative smear campaigns anyone in public life has ever had to endure”. Such tactics are actually the first resort of the Williamson camp. 3/13 https://www.thejc.com/comment/comment/i-want-people-to-know-the-truth-about-chris-williamson-1.493936

Happily, Williamson lost his deposit.

This was no one-off. McDonald and Williamson have plenty of history. Here is an endorsement published by “Labour Against the Witch Hunt”, a group dedicated to championing some of the worst figures in the party's antisemitism crisis. 4/13

Together, McDonald and Williamson also set out on “democracy roadshow” tours around the country to back mandatory reselections of Parliamentary candidates. This was a crucial cause for Corbynites determined to force “right wing” Labour MPs out. 5/13

The 2019 "roadshow" took place when Williamson was suspended from the party. No matter for McDonald, oh no. Solidarity! Well, he was following the example of his leader, I suppose (this was filmed in January 2019). 6/13

McDonald has also come to the defence of Jackie Walker, one of the most notorious figures in the party crisis. She was expelled from Labour in March 2019. Three months later, McDonald told the BBC her film “Witch Hunt” was “a very well-made film and asked some questions 7/13

...that need answering”. He added he was “pretty sure” the film was “not antisemitic” and that Walker is “not racist”. Perish the thought! 8/13

Labour's worst figures aren't tone deaf. They are simply wilfully deaf. Consider McDonald's words in 2017 at a London commemoration event for British fighters in the Spanish civil war. He compared their cause with the Palestinian struggle against Israeli “oppression” 9/13

...in our times, casting Israelis as fascists. Two years on, he told the BBC “I don’t know what was antisemitic about that… no one has ever explained that to me”. Er, Martin Sugarman certainly did try. 10/13 https://www.thejc.com/news/uk-news/anger-over-insult-to-memory-of-jewish-fighters-against-franco-1.440835

McDonald remains committed to the far left. In April 2020, he backed a new campaigning group called “Don’t Leave, Organise”. It brings together a disreputable set - Jewish Voice for Labour (JVL), Red Labour and the Labour Representation Committee (LRC). 11/13

Naomi Wimborne-Idrissi of JVL said the group aimed to tackle “the weaponisation of anti-semitism which - as we’ve now seen from the internal party report leaked on Sunday - was a conscious strategy of the enemy within”. Ah, the stab in the back myth. 12/13 https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/b/labour-left-groups-call-unified-grassroots-coalition-preserve-corbyn

Many are heartened by the party's moves aginst the worst under Keir Starmer. It would be nice if they went so far that McDonald felt it was no longer his party, and drab "roadshows" with his mate Williamson are his future.

Perhaps "Momentum Renewal" could follow him out. 13/13