A SOUTH Yorkshire peer said to have blamed a ‘Jewish media’ for his dangerous driving jail term has been suspended from the Labour party.
Chiefs are investigating claims Lord Ahmed of Rotherham said Jewish owners of ‘newspapers and TV channels’ had put pressure on the court.
The peer, aged 55, was jailed in 2009 for sending a text message on the M1 shortly before his car was involved in a fatal crash in 2007. He has declined to comment.
In a statement, the Labour Party said it ‘deplores and does not tolerate any sort of racism or anti-Semitism’.
“We will be seeking to clarify these remarks as soon as possible,” the party added.
Lord Ahmed is reported to have made the comments in a television interview, thought to have been broadcast in April last year, while he was on a visit to Pakistan.
He is alleged to have told an Urdu-language broadcast he should have been sentenced by a magistrate but pressure was placed on the courts to charge him with a more serious offence because of his support for Palestinians.
Lord Ahmed admitted dangerous driving and was sentenced at Sheffield Crown Court because the district judge sitting at magistrates’ court felt his sentencing powers were insufficient.
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