Labour criticised over new poster campaign
The Labour Party has come under fire over the weekend after running a series of poster campaigns which critics say are anti-semitic.
The new poster shows Conservative Party Leader Michael Howard and Oliver Letwin’s heads pasted onto the bodies of flying pigs.
Both men are Jewish.
The slogan – which attacked Tory tax and spending plans – stated: “The Day Tory Sums Add Up”.
The joke was that pigs would fly when the Tories balanced the nation’s books.
But, the Jewish religion considers pigs unclean and some Jewish groups have said the posters are offensive
Ned Temko, editor of the Jewish Chronicle, suggested last week’s poster drew inspiration from old anti-Jewish stereotypes.
“The most charitable interpretation is these were an inadvertent mix of insensitivity and cultural illiteracy,” Mr Temko said.
“A less charitable conclusion is Labour, or at least some within it, sees election-campaign advantages in subliminally reminding voters Mr Howard is Jewish.
“The least charitable: it is part of a deliberate pattern of frankly anti-semitic invective.”
Prospective Tory candidate Andrew Mennear, whose Finchley constituency has a large Jewish population, chose the latter and branded the pig advert “tasteless” and offensive.
A spokesman for the Board of Deputies of British Jews said the ad was not “the wisest thing we’ve ever seen”.
But Sir Gerald Kaufman, Labour MP for Manchester Gorton, himself a Jew, said: “I do not regard this as offensive in any way whatsoever.”
A Labour spokesman said the posters were “not anti-Jewish, but anti-Tory”.
Labour is running its general election advertising campaign under the heading: “Britain is working. Don’t let the Tories wreck it again”.
