EDL leader Tommy Robinson (Reuters)
EDL leader Tommy Robinson (Reuters)

The leader of the English Defence League (EDL) has received criticism for tweeting an anti-Semitic article which appeared on a far-right conspiracy website.

Tommy Robinson tweeted an article on The Traitor Within website along with the comment: "I hate Labour because of this".

The article, based on a story which first appeared in the Mail On Sunday in 2009, talks about allegations about former Labour prime minister Tony Blair and former home secretary Jack Straw "dishonestly" concealing a plan to allow more immigrants into Britain to make the country more multi-cultural because they feared a huge backlash if it was made public.

Further down, the artilce on The Traitor Within says in bold letters: "Of those mentioned in the above article, Home Secretary, Jack Straw, Immigration Minister, Barbara Roche, and Jonathan Portes, who wrote the immigration report, are all Jewish."

Portes, director of the National Institute of Economic and Social Research, asked Robinson via Twitter if the reason he hated Labour was "because you're anti-Semitic?"

During a series of tweets, the EDL leader said how he had "never seen the website before" and how he only "scanned it, read about Blair etc planning mass immigration to rub the rights nose in it".

He added: "Tony Blair was in charge of Labour it's him I blame. I don't see what them being Jewish has to do with it. If you're trying to say I'm anti -Jewish cos [sic] I tweeted that article, get a grip.

"It's not a problem to me. All those politicians in that article are sell out cowards and are to blame for the mess we are in. Jewish or not."

Robinson concluded: "Anyone who follows me can see I'm clearly not anti-Jewish."

As reported in the Politcal Scrapbook, the EDL cite Muslim anti-Semitism in their mission statement.

This has been rejected by Jewish charities like the Community Security Trust, who said the EDL: "Only uses Jews and Israel in order to try and provoke Muslims."