Seamus Milne, Labour’s director of strategy and communications, and Andrew Murray, another of Mr Corbyn’s influential aides, called for the activist to be welcomed back into the party after two officials said he should be thrown out. Glyn Secker had joined Palestine Live, a pro-Corbyn Facebook group, on which members posted comments denying the Holocaust, and was also accused of heckling a member of the Jewish Labour Movement (JLM) as well as expressing anti-Semitic views. According to emails passed to the Sunday Times, the pair urged officials to reinstate of Mr Secker, a Jewish campaigner against Israel who had his Labour membership suspended last March.
In the leaked emails, a party official says: “There are legitimate questions to be asked about someone who has contributed to Palestine Live, heckled JLM at conference and posted content saying ‘Jew = Zionist = Israel = Jew’.”
Another official added: “We would normally suspend with this.”
But two days later Mr Murray sent an email calling for the decision to be reversed and criticised those who had exposed anti-Semitism in the party.
He said: “I don’t know if this came from ‘Labour Against Anti-Semitism’ but they are well dodgy.”
Mr Murray also said Mr Corbyn himself was “interested in this one”.
Mr Milne leapt to the defence of Mr Secker, instructing officials to welcome him back into Labour.
He said: “None of the posts can be identified as anti-Semitic in the terms of the definition we have adopted as a party.
“Several quite clearly relate to political arguments within the Jewish community.”
Soon afterwards, Mr Secker was allowed back into the party.
Messages on Palestine Live include references to conspiracy theories suggesting Israel was involved in the 9/11 and 7/7 terror attacks.
Last month the founder of the forum was among more than 200 Jewish members and supporters of the Labour Party who thew their weight behind Mr Corbyn as the anti-Semitism row dragged on.
Elleanne Green and fellow Corbynites signed a letter published in the Guardian calling for those in favour of bringing “an end to bigotry and racism” to back Mr Corbyn and Labour.
Another leaked tape passed to the Sunday Times showed shadow chancellor John McDonnell voicing his support for Rebecca Gordon-Nesbitt, who was rejected as a Labour candidate last year over her tweets.
She was blocked from running for the South Thanet seat over messages she posted online about the “Zionist sympathies” of a Jewish MP.
But Mr McDonnel said: “I’ve expressed my support for Rebecca.”
