Dalyell remarks on Jewish cabal may face scrutiny by watchdog
By Benedict Brogan, Political Correspondent
 http://news.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?view=DETAILS&xml=/news/2003/05/05/ntam05.xml


Tam Dalyell, Labour's most senior MP, faces being referred to the Commission for Racial Equality over remarks he made to an American magazine which suggested Tony Blair was unduly influenced by Jewish figures in his inner circle.

Prof Eric Moonman, a former Labour MP and current president of the Zionist Alliance, said he had consulted lawyers about comments published yesterday that he described as "highly inflammatory". Mr Dalyell, MP for Linlithgow and Father of the House, was alleged to have accused the Prime Minister of "being unduly influenced by a cabal of Jewish advisers".

The remark, which was not a direct quote but claimed to describe his attitude, appeared in the current issue of Vanity Fair magazine in an article to mark Mr Blair's 50th birthday.

Mr Moonman who is a former senior vice-president of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, described himself as a long-standing friend of Mr Dalyell but said his views were unacceptable.

"It's the sort of insidious thing I would expect to see in a poorly produced BNP pamphlet," he said. "It is bad enough for an MP to start to use this language but it is much worse when he is Father of the House. If he were to point out a cabal of black people, he would be referred to the CRE."

Mr Moonman said he did not believe Mr Dalyell was anti-Semitic. But he added: "This sort of language is quite wrong and ultimately will do him a great deal of harm. We will look very closely at what he says in the future. I have taken advice from several lawyers and will have further consultations on whether there is a case for a referral to the CRE. I believe there is."

Downing Street described the attributed remarks as "ludicrous", while a spokesman for Jack Straw, the Foreign Secretary, said: "These remarks are too unworthy to be worth a comment."

Mr Dalyell, an opponent of the war against Iraq, is said to have identified Lord Levy, the Prime Minister's special envoy to the Middle East, Mr Straw and Peter Mandelson, whose father was Jewish.

He denied he was anti-Semitic. "I am fully aware that one is treading on cut glass on this issue and no one wants to be accused of anti-Semitism, but, if it is a question of launching an assault on Syria or Iran . . . then one has to be candid," he said.

Last night Mr Dalyell said he was worried Mr Blair was being "led up the garden path on a Likudnic-Sharon agenda", a reference to Ariel Sharon, the hard-line Israeli prime minister and his Likud party.

He said he only used the word "cabal" in reference to figures in the Bush administration. "The cabal I referred to was in the US. That is the Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs," he said