British parliament
British parliamentiStock

A former British Labour MP has been suspended from the party over comments apparently made online about the Jewish community, the UK-based Jewish News reported Saturday.

The suspension follows a social media post allegedly made by Jim Sheridan which spoke of his loss of “respect and empathy” for the community amid the row about anti-Semitism.

The suspension of the former Paisley and Renfrewshire North MP, now a councillor in Renfrewshire, is understood to have happened on Saturday after a complaint was received, according to the Jewish News.

Labour did not comment on the individual case but said all complaints of anti-Semitism are fully investigated by the party.

A spokesman said, “The Labour Party takes all complaints of anti-Semitism extremely seriously and we are committed to challenging and campaigning against it in all its forms.”

“All complaints about anti-Semitism are fully investigated in line with our rules and procedures and any appropriate disciplinary action is taken,” added the spokesman, according to the Jewish News.

The British Labour party has been embroiled in a series of controversies related to anti-Semitism in recent years. Dozens of Labour members have been suspended over their anti-Semitic statements.

Party leader Jeremy Corbyn himself has been accused of holding anti-Semitic views by senior UK Jewish leaders. Corbyn has also been criticized for calling Hamas and Hezbollah his "friends" and for outright refusing to condemn those two terrorist organizations despite being urged to do so by local Jewish groups.

Most recently, the party was criticized over its refusal to adopt in full the definition of anti-Semitism by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance.

Following the criticism, Corbyn published an op-ed in The Guardian, in which he acknowledged that the party has “a real problem” when it comes to anti-Semitism, but strongly rejected the idea that it poses any threat to the British Jewish community.

He subsequently published a video in which he acknowledged that anti-Semitism has surfaced in the party and apologized for “the hurt that has been caused to many Jewish people.”

The controversies with Corbyn continued this week, when the Daily Mailpublished photos of him at a cemetery in Tunisia holding a wreath near the graves of some of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) terrorists who were responsible for the massacre of the 11 Israeli athletes at the 1972 Munich Olympics.

The Labour leader said he would not apologize for attending the event at the cemetery because he was trying to “promote peace in the Middle East”.

Days later, a picture emerged of Corbyn apparently making a salute linked to the Muslim Brotherhood organization.

A spokesman for the Labour leader explained he had been “standing up for democracy” when he used the Rabbi’ah symbol.

Also last week, the Times of Londonpublished a picture of Corbyn meeting with the leader-in-exile of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) terrorist organization, only weeks before its members carried out an attack on a Jerusalem synagogue in which six people were murdered.