Jailed peer attacked over alleged ‘Jewish conspiracy’ claims

LABOUR leader Ed Miliband has condemned Lord Ahmed of Rotherham – after he apparently blamed his prison sentence for dangerous driving on a Jewish conspiracy.
Labour peer Lord AhmedLabour peer Lord Ahmed
Labour peer Lord Ahmed

The Labour peer was suspended from the party after it was alleged he told an Urdu-language broadcaster in Pakistan that the judge who jailed him for 12 weeks was appointed to the High Court after helping a “Jewish colleague” of Tony Blair during an important case.

In 2009, he admitted dangerous driving after sending and receiving text messages minutes before his car crashed into a stationary vehicle on the M1 near Sheffield. The driver of the other car died although the judge in the case said the text messages had not caused the accident.

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Discussing the decision to sentence him at the Crown rather than magistrates’ court, Lord Ahmed allegedly said: “My case became more critical because I went to Gaza to support Palestinians. My Jewish friends who own newspapers and TV channels opposed this.”

Mr Miliband said: “I think that the comments reported by Lord Ahmed are disgraceful comments.

“There’s no place for anti-semitism in the Labour Party, and frankly anybody who makes those kinds of comments cannot be either a Labour lord or a Labour member of Parliament.”

Just last year Lord Ahmed was suspended from the Labour Party for three months over reports that he offered a $10m “bounty” for the capture of US President Barack Obama and his predecessor, George W Bush.

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The peer denied making the comments, published in a Pakistani newspaper, and was reinstated after an investigation.

A statement from law firm Wilford Smith said Lord Ahmed would not comment on the latest allegations until his lawyers had seen the video and an unedited transcript of the interview.

Lord Ahmed was the first Muslim to become a life peer when he was appointed in 1998.