Anti-Semitism row MP Naz Shah gets Labour role

A Labour MP suspended two years ago in a row over anti-Semitism has been made a shadow equalities minister.

Naz Shah lost the parliamentary whip and was barred from party activity for three months in 2016 while an investigation was carried out.

It followed social media messages about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict which she conceded were anti-Semitic.

She admitted she was "ignorant" about discrimination against Jews and wanted to win back the community's trust.

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn made the Bradford West MP shadow minister for women and equalities as he announced other appointments to fill vacancies or maternity cover in his frontbench team.

Ms Shah was suspended after a 2014 Facebook post emerged in which she shared a graphic of Israel's outline superimposed on to a map of the US under the headline: Solution for Israel-Palestine Conflict - Relocate Israel into United States, with the comment: "Problem solved."

A Twitter post later emerged in which she urged supporters of the Palestinians to vote in an online poll on Israeli military action, claiming that "the Jews are rallying" to skew the result.

In an interview with the BBC's World at One at the time, Ms Shah insisted she "wasn't anti-Semitic" but conceded "what I put out was anti-Semitic".

Following the row over her comments, Ms Shah stood down temporarily from the Commons Home Affairs committee - but later rejoined after she was re-instated by the party.

In January 2017, she met Board of Deputies leaders in Bradford to discuss her desire to strengthen her relationship with the Jewish community.

Following the meeting, Board of Deputies President Jonathan Arkush said: "Naz Shah is one of the only people involved in Labour's anti-Semitism crisis who has sought to make amends for her actions, and for this we commend her and now regard Naz as a sincere friend of our community."

She nearly doubled her majority at the 2017 general election.

She recently hit the headlines after she was forced to take part in a key Brexit vote in a wheelchair after being discharged from hospital. She hit out at the "undignified" way she had been treated by Conservative whips.