Episode 58: Attack on Chris Williamson

First aired on 4 March 2023

The Daily Mail attacked the presenter of Palestine Declassified, Chris Williamson, recently reporting that “Parliamentary authorities are facing calls to consider revoking a security pass held by a former Labour MP who now fronts a show on Iranian state TV.”

According to the Mail, “He continues to enjoy privileged access to Parliament by holding one of more than 300 passes doled out to former MPs”.

As a historic Freedom of Information victory showed, lobbyists have exploited the system. But the Mail produced no evidence of any such issue with Chris Williamson. Conservative backbencher Henry Smith told MailOnline that privileged access should not be used to “give succour to governments that wish us ill”.

Brendan Clarke-Smith, Tory MP for Bassetlaw, stated “Westminster does not need a mouthpiece for the Iranian regime.”

Williamson told MailOnline: 'The willingness of these parliamentarians to make utterly baseless accusations about me, while remaining silent about hundreds of MPs acting as lobbyists for the hostile regime in Tel Aviv, reveals their shameless hypocrisy.'

But was Williamson correct? Who are the little-known MPs rounded up for a quote by the Mail? The privately educated Smith has in the past taken trips funded by the pre-eminent Zionist lobby group in the US, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee and he has been a member of the “political council” of the hardline Zionist think tank the Henry Jackson Society.

Clarke-Smith has been an MP only since 2019 and within weeks, had attended a Conservative Friends of Israel (CFI) lunch with Zionist regime ambassador Mark Regev. He can be seen obsequiously fawning over Regev in this picture he posted on Facebook.

He has also taken part in to take part in one of CFI’s infamous propaganda tours to occupied Palestine. But is this all about Palestine? It seems likely these two useful idiots are being wheeled out to push a bigger agenda.

Smith is a member of the House of Commons' Foreign Affairs Committee. This may be a clue. The newly appointed chair of the committee is a NE MP called Alicia Kearns. She has been pushing the idea of proscribing the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps as a terrorist organisation. She has also called for the closure of Mosques in the UK alleged to have some connection to the IRGC. Who is Alicia Kearns?

Prior to being an MP, she worked in propaganda for the Ministry of Defence and she ran the Foreign Office’s spooky-sounding Counter-Daesh Coalition Communications Cell for two years, facilitating the covert UK intervention in Syria. Then she worked at Global Influence, a propaganda firm that was a Foreign Office contractor.

All these roles were deleted from her LinkedIn page after she was declared as a candidate in the 2019 election. But, despite her obvious connections to MI6, it seems that the Foreign Office is not playing ball – according to a Saudi propaganda channel. Could this be the reason The Mail has run the bizarre story on Chris Williamson?