Row escalates over Labour's 'anti-Semitic' ad campaign

LONDON - Fresh accusations of anti-Semitism have been levelled at the Labour Party over its latest proposed campaign poster, which depicts Tory leader Michael Howard as Shakespeare's Shylock.

The new poster has been released just days after the party's first posters, which showed the heads of Howard and shadow Chancellor Oliver Letwin, who are both Jewish, superimposed on flying pigs.

The Jewish religion forbids the consumption of pig meat, while the character of Shylock is seen as a racist depiction of a Jew.

The two posters set out to trash the Conservatives' spending plans as laid out in its manifesto for May's general election.

Community leaders say that the ads, which were created by TWBA\London, are offensive and tasteless, especially because they have been released in the same week as Holocaust Memorial Day.

Ned Temko, editor of The Jewish Chronicle, said: "The campaign clearly draws on an old stereotype. The most charitable interpretation is these were an inadvertent mix of insensitivity and cultural illiteracy.

"The least charitable: it is part of a deliberate pattern of frankly anti-Semitic invective."

Labour has insisted that the posters are not anti-Semitic, merely anti-Tory.

A spokesperson for the party said that they "made a serious point about the Tories' spending claims".

The posters were given the go-ahead by former health secretary Alan Milburn, a leading light in Tony Blair's election campaign.

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