UK: Union director who pushed for Israel boycott to leave role

The Jewish Chronicle reports:

The political director of Britain's biggest trade union is moving from her role following a series of anti-Israel controversies. 

Jennie Formby has been involved in a number of incidents at Unite in the past five months.

She was said to have caused outrage at a Labour national executive committee meeting last week by complaining that the peer appointed to investigate claims of antisemitism among Labour-supporting students at Oxford University had previously visited Israel.

She was also one of the leaders of an attempt to get the party's NEC to boycott security firm G4S because of its work in Israel and the Palestinian territories.

The JC understands there has been discontent over her outspoken comments. Her new role as the union's regional secretary in the south east region is a less prominent one.

Writing in the Huffington Post on Tuesday, political executive editor Paul Waugh claimed Labour NEC members had reacted with shock when Ms Formby questioned the suitability of Baroness Royall to lead the Oxford investigation.

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