Dominatrix Labour councillor faces the boot for anti-Semitic slur: Former sex worker is suspended after saying Zionists 'quashed the truth about collaboration with Nazis'
By James Gant
Daily Mail
December 7, 2019
A Labour councillor who made headlines as a professional whip-cracking dominatrix has been suspended by her party for saying Zionists 'quashed the truth about their collaboration with Nazis'.
Margaret Corvid, a member of Plymouth City Council, is being investigated for anti-Semitism after allegations made against her in a blog post by researcher David Collier.
Her comments were made in 2007 about a play called Perdition about Zionist-Nazi relations during the Second World War.
Ms Corvid, who is Jewish, was previously called Esther Sassaman and was a political activist in Dundee before changing her name and moving to Plymouth in 2015.
Mr Collier's blog says she left the Scottish Palestine Solidarity Campaign over a decision to screen Perdition on Holocaust Memorial Day (HMD).
Referring to the play in her resignation letter, she said 'The Zionists have certainly controlled the discourse about Holocaust remembrance for many years, and have aggressively quashed the truth about Zionist collaboration with Nazis.'
She added: 'Until then, Zionists will be able to marginalise and isolate alternative narratives during Holocaust Memorial Week and will use such efforts to strengthen their control of the Holocaust discourse.'
In a statement, she said 'I am deeply sorry for the statements I made years ago as described in David Collier's blog post.'
She added although she disclosed all her past memberships of political groups she 'had not remembered the issue with regard to Perdition', neither had she been able to recall her 'intemperate tweet'.
She added: 'These old statements do not reflect my views on the Israel/Palestine conflict or my views on anti-Semitism.'
A Labour Party spokesperson said 'The Labour Party takes all complaints of anti-Semitism extremely seriously and they are fully investigated in line with our rules and procedures and any appropriate action is taken.'
In an interview with photos of her in revealing clothing in 2017, Ms Corvid, 37 at the time, said she planned to hang up her whip and handcuffs and enter politics.
She said she was so horrified about Brexit and Donald Trump that she decided to swap the bedroom for the council chamber.
Admitting she was a self-employed sex worker, working under the name Mistress Magpie, she said she practised bondage, domination, sadism and masochism.
She said she was leaving that behind to become a Labour councillor in Plymouth in the 2018 elections.
She succeeded in getting elected, seeing off a challenge from the Tories.
Originally from the USA, she said 'I knew that making a difference in modest, essential ways could lift my heart, connecting me to the humanity that my own mother had once told me I could never join.
'My husband and I visited a councillor, a sweet, odd, funny friend.
'We asked if a woman who whips men for a living could ever be elected. Maybe, he said...times are changing.'
Now she's embroiled in the suspension row in Plymouth.
Elected as a Labour councillor in the Drake ward of the city in 2018, she has apologised for statements 'made years ago' before she was a Labour Party member, which she says do not now reflect her views.
She said she alerted the local Labour leadership to the issue a year ago and 'fully supports the Party's policy to stamp out' anti-semitism.
The complaint revolves around her comments in early 2007 about a controversial play called Perdition which is accused of being anti-semitic.
Details about the episode have recently emerged in an online blog post by self-styled anti-semitism researcher David Collier.
He has published part of a letter by Coun Corvid, then known as Esther Sassaman, that he alleges is anti-semitic.
Ms Sassaman resigned from the Dundee branch of Scottish Palestine Solidarity Campaign which was showing the play.
She later moved to Plymouth, changed her name and joined the Labour Party in 2015.
This week she said 'I am deeply sorry for the statements I made years ago as described in David Collier's blog post.
'I disclosed my past membership of the Socialist Workers Party), Scottish National Party and Scottish Palestine Solidarity Campaign in my empanelment hearing when I was selected to be a Plymouth Labour candidate, but I had not remembered the issue with regard to Perdition, my intemperate tweet, or my interview with Jennifer Lowenstein.
'In November 2018 I was reminded, through the tweets of an online harasser and troll, of some of these incidents.
'As soon as I knew about them, I reported them to Deputy Council Leader Pete Smith and Chief Whip Eddie Rennie in November 2018 in a face to face meeting. Since then, I have continued to keep the leadership informed.
'These old statements do not reflect my views on the Israel/Palestine Conflict or my views on anti-semitism.
'My views are reflected in the first speech I made to Plymouth City Council in June 2018, in which I seconded the motion that the Council should adopt the IHRA (International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance) definition of anti-semitism.
'I wholeheartedly support the Labour position on anti-semitism, which is to stamp it out wherever it exists.
'I am proud to be the Labour Councillor in Drake ward, and my focus as a local Councillor has always been, and will always be, to help my constituents in their day-to-day lives.
EDITOR’S NOTE: Originally from the US … Good fucking riddance!
No comments:
Post a Comment