Nick Clegg asks health spokesperson to step down after she called for inquiry into organ-trafficking allegations in Haiti
The Liberal Democrat leader, Nick Clegg, has sacked his health spokeswoman in the House of Lords after she called for an inquiry into allegations that Israeli soldiers were involved in organ trafficking in Haiti.
Clegg described Baroness Jenny Tonge’s remarks about Israeli troops sent to the earthquake-stricken country as “wrong, distasteful and provocative”.
It is the second time Tonge has been fired as a Liberal Democrat frontbencher for making controversial comments about Israel.
The latest row followed accusations in the online Palestine Telegraph – of which she is a patron – that members of the Israeli Defence Force (IDF) had been harvesting body parts in the aftermath of the Haiti earthquake.
She subsequently told the Jewish Chronicle: “To prevent allegations such as these – which have already been posted on YouTube – going any further, the IDF and the Israeli Medical Association should establish an independent inquiry immediately to clear the names of the team in Haiti.”
Fellow Liberal Democrats were said to have complained to Clegg about her comments.
In a statement last night, the leader said the peer “apologises unreservedly”.
“Following discussions with the leader of the Liberal Democrats in the House of Lords, Lord McNally, I have decided that Jenny Tonge will stand down as Liberal Democrat health spokesperson in the Lords following her unacceptable comments suggesting an inquiry into highly offensive allegations against the IDF humanitarian operation in Haiti, Clegg said.
“The comments were wrong, distasteful and provocative and I recognise the deep and understandable distress they have caused to the Jewish community.
“While I do not believe that Jenny Tonge is anti-semitic or racist, I regard her comments as wholly unacceptable. Jenny Tonge apologises unreservedly for the offence she has caused.”
Tonge was a Lib Dem MP between 1997 and 2005 and then became a peer. She regularly ran into controversy for her critical stance towards Israel.
In 2004, she was sacked as a Lib Dem spokeswoman on children’s issues after suggesting she could consider becoming a suicide bomber.
Then leader Charles Kennedy dismissed her after she told a pro-Palestinian meeting in Westminster: “If I had been a mother and a grandmother in Palestine living for decades in that situation, I don’t know, I may well have become one myself.”
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