MP Stella Creasy accused Al Jazeera of smearing her Jewish partner and herself on Sunday after the state-owned Qatari news network aired an edited clip of her partner Dan Fox speaking at an event, accusing him of relations with the far Right.
The event Fox spoke at was regarding the candidacy of London's Mayor Sadiq Khan to potentially be involved in a recent documentary series about racism in the Labour Party.
in the series, the news organization showed a clip of Fox speaking about Khan, who was a candidate for London's mayor at the time. In the clip, an unknown activist expressed racist opinions against Khan, with specific reference to his religion.
However, in the edited video, Al Jazeera did not show Fox's response and his views about Khan, other than stating that Fox arrived at the event in order to support Khan's candidacy.
Fox's answer
On his Twitter account, Fox gave his side of the events. He said that he is a personal friend of the event organizer and that he had known her since childhood, and arrived in order to support Khan's candidacy and oppose the "racist" views expressed by the other participants.
A statement from me. I won’t be commenting further. pic.twitter.com/sD8hFyIc2v
— stellacreasy (@stellacreasy) September 25, 2022
"I was only there - COULD only have been there - due to my being in opposition to all others present," he wrote. "I did nothing other than express support for and defense of Sadiq Khan, including against Islamophobic accusations such as being connected to terror or planning to introduce Sharia law across the capital.
"This occurrence was simply part of my lifelong commitment to challenging intolerance, including in my own community," he said.
"I was only there - COULD only have been there - due to my being in opposition to all others present. I did nothing other than express support for and defence of Sadiq Khan including against Islamophobic accusations such as being connected to terror or planning to introduce Sharia law across the capital."
Dan Fox
Stella Creasy, a Labour MP who represents the Walthamstow constituency in London, won 76% of the vote in the last election.
She has also issued an official statement in response, saying, "a video is currently circulating, attempting to smear my partner by seeking to link him to the far Right. It is categorically untrue to suggest this and indeed based on a meeting he attended specifically to rebut those spreading islamophobia within the Jewish community. This reflects his long history of anti-racist activism across all communities.
"Al Jazeera knows this because they were told, but still chose to cynically edit this video to try to mislead – presenting these allegations 30 minutes into the transmission and the truth in cards 50 minutes later. The effect is to deceive – and Al Jazeera should have known that," she added.
"It is categorically untrue to suggest this, and indeed based on a meeting he attended specifically to rebut those spreading islamophobia within the Jewish community. This reflects his long history of anti-racist activism across all communities."
Stella Creasy