Last night MPACUK apologised for any ‘offence’ given to Ms. Fitzsimmons. In a letter sent to her, the group said ‘it was brought to our attention that a group we were working with locally has described you in a leaflet as being Jewish. Being the sponsors of this leaflet we apologise for this inaccuracy and unreservedly regret any offence caused. Our campaign is based solely on your policies.’

Sunday 17th April

 The Mail on Sunday, by Jonathan Oliver,

Charles Kennedy was last night embroiled in a row over a vicious anti-Jewish smear campaign against a Blair-babe MP. The Liberal Democrat leader faced calls to sack one of his Parliamentary candidates over his links to a racist Muslim group which urged voters to reject his Labour rival because she was a ‘Jew’.

The anti-Semitic leaflets handed out at Mosques also suggested Muslims should vote for Mr. Kennedy’s party, which opposed the Iraq war, as an act of Jihad, or holy war. Critics will say the row highlights the contrast between Mr. Kennedy’s benign image as leader of the ‘nice’ party, and the dirty tricks employed at the Lib Dems at street level.

The radical Muslim Public Affairs Committee is running a campaign to persuade ethnic minorities in half a dozen Labour seats to vote tactically to oust the sitting MP. One of the members of the hit list is Rochdale’s Lorna Fitzsimmons, who has a slim 5, 6000 majority over Lib Dem challenger Paul Rowen. MPACUK is urging the 20,000 Muslims in the Lancashire town to back Mr. Rowen.

Yesterday Mr. Rowen admitted having met the extremist group. But he insisted that he had nothing to do with the production of the leaflets, which wrongly claim that Ms. Fitzsimmons is Jewish and that he did not support anti-Semitism.

The Mail on Sunday has been given copies of flyers distributed in Rochdale by the Muslim organisation which are explicitly anti-Semitic. One says in reference to Ms. Fitzsimmons: ‘She has done nothing to help the Palestinians. Why? Because she is a Jewish member of the Labour Friends of Israel.’

The leaflet goes on to urge voters to back the Liberal Democrats: ‘Wake up Muslims! The Lib Dems were the only party to vote against the Iraq war.’ Another mail shot, sent to hundreds of Rochdale households, says: ‘Lorna Fitzsimmons is an ardent Zionist and a member of the most powerful anti-Muslim lobby in the world, the Israeli lobby.’

It also claims that it is Allah’s will to vote against the Labour MP. By Allah if you do not wake up now in this great Jihad (struggle against injustice for the sake of Allah) you should hold your head in shame, another woman will be raped tonight in Chechnya and Iraq, another daughter shot in Palestine.

‘Your mothers from Afghanistan to Palestine are dead, their children are still weeping – remove the pro-Israeli Zionist MP who destroyed so many of their lives.’

Mr. Rowen told the Mail on Sunday: ‘MPACUK is a totally independent group. I have made it very plain to them. Their campaign is their campaign. I have seen one leaflet, and as far as I am concerned it was a fair comment. It is a matter of opinion.’

On it’s website MPACUK also casts doubt on the personal morality of Ms. Fitzsimmons, who is happily married with children. It quotes disapprovingly an interview she gave some years ago in which she said: ‘I’m an immensely sexual person.’

Ms. Fitzsimons yesterday called an inquiry on the Lib Dems to launch an inquiry into its links to the smear campaign. She said: ‘I totally and utterly deplore incitement to racism of any kind. I am disappointed an organisation like MPACUK has had any association at all with the Liberal Democrats. I call on Charles Kennedy to order an immediate inquiry into this. He should sack any candidate trying to incite anti-Semitism.’ 

The Lib Dem’s Election supremo Lord Rennard said last night: ‘Our candidate was unaware of the nature of MPACUK. ‘We totally disassociate ourselves from this association. They have nothing to do with the Lib Dems.’  

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