Board of Deputies reacts to ‘Lehman Brothers’ comment by Labour candidate

Board of Deputies Vice President Amanda Bowman has responded to remarks made by Labour candidate for Birmingham Hall Green, Tahir Ali at a meeting this week.

Amanda said: “At a hustings event in Birmingham Hall Green last week, Tahir Ali, the Labour candidate, claimed that cases of antisemitism from Liberal Democrats and Conservatives had not been covered by the ‘mainstream media’. While doing so, he suggested that media owned by ‘Lehman Brothers’ was a part of this. Mr Ali has subsequently made it clear that he meant to say the Barclay Brothers (the current owners of the Telegraph), as well as stressing that he would ‘never peddle’ the antisemitic trope that Jews control the world’s finances.

“The antisemitic remarks from candidates of other parties (as well as the Board of Deputies’ criticism of them) were in fact covered by the media. We would urge Mr Ali to spend less time focusing on whether the media are covering statements from political opponents of his own party, and more time ensuring that his own words do not convey extremely unfortunate misunderstandings.”