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21 August 2018updated 05 Oct 2023 8:33am

Labour can be Jo Cox’s party or Chris Williamson’s – it cannot be both

Williamson’s message of support for pro-Assad propagandist Vanessa Beeley will be greeted as a dog-whistle by conspiracy theorists.

By Oz Katerji

Labour MP for Derby North Chris Williamson has courted fresh controversy after endorsing a pro-Assad conspiracy theorist described by the Guardian’s former Middle East editor as “the Syrian conflict’s goddess of propaganda”.

Williamson, who was attending the Beautiful Days festival, tweeted of his “privilege” in meeting Vanessa Beeley, a blogger who described meeting the Syrian regime’s war criminal president Bashar al Assad as her “proudest moment” and has waged a relentless campaign of lies and distortion to promote the Assad regime abroad.

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