UK Parliament
Conservative MP Suella Braverman
- Conservative MP Suella Braverman accused of pushing a far-right anti-Semitic conspiracy theory.
- Braverman accused Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn of promoting "Cultural Marxism."
- Braverman is a leading member of the Brexit-supporting European Research Group of MPs.
- It comes after senior figures in the group reportedly started referring to themselves as "grand wizards," which is a term most commonly used by the Ku Klux Klan.
LONDON - A former Brexit minister and leading Conservative MP has been accused of pushing a "far-right" anti-Semitic conspiracy theory about the spread of "Cultural Marxism" in the UK.
Conservative MP Suella Braverman told a meeting in central London on Tuesday that her party was engaged in "a fight against Cultural Marxism" being led by Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn.
"As Conservatives, we are engaged in a battle against Cultural Marxism," she said.
"I'm very worried about this ongoing creep of Cultural Marxism which has come from Jeremy Corbyn."
Cultural Marxism is an anti-Semitic conspiracy theory which was popularised in recent years by figures on the far-right, including the Norwegian terrorist Anders Breivik, for whom it formed a major part of his terrorist manifesto.
The theory suggests that Western culture has been deliberately undermined and attacked by ideas originally pushed by the Frankfurt School of largely Jewish academics.
It is a theory which is widely spread by the American "alt-right" as well as other far-right groups across the world.
Asked by journalist Dawn Foster why she was pushing a far-right term used by Anders Breivik, Braverman insisted that she was only trying to prevent further attacks on the "British genius."
"We have a culture evolving from the far left which is about snuffing out freedom of speech, freedom of thought," she said.
"No one can get offended anymore. We are living in a culture where we are putting everybody in cotton wool. Our risk-averse mentalities are taking over.
"And that instinct for freedom, for risk-taking, for making a mistake, for innovation, for creativity is being killed. And it's absolutely damaging for our spirit as British people and our genius - that British genius."
Braverman is a leading member of the European Research Group of anti-EU Conservative MPs and resigned as parliamentary under-Secretary at the Department for Exiting the European Union in protest at Theresa May's withdrawal agreement.
The row comes after the BBC journalist Laura Kuenssberg reported on Monday that senior figures in the group have started referring to themselves as "Grand Wizards," a term most famously used by the Ku Klux Klan.
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