David Ward (born 24 June 1953) is a British politician who was elected as the
Liberal Democrat Member of Parliament
A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members of ...
(MP) for
Bradford East at the
2010 general election.
He lost his seat in
2015
File:2015 Events Collage new.png, From top left, clockwise: Civil service in remembrance of November 2015 Paris attacks; Germanwings Flight 9525 was purposely crashed into the French Alps; the rubble of residences in Kathmandu following the Apri ...
when the
Labour Party candidate
Imran Hussain defeated him by 7,000 votes. Before his election to parliament, he was a councillor in Bradford for 26 years, and returned to local politics from 2016 until his defeat in 2021.
In July 2013, he was suspended from the
Liberal Democrats Parliamentary party until September 2013, after questioning the continuing existence of the state of
Israel
Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...
and refusing to apologise for his remarks.
He was expelled from the party in 2017.
Early life and career
Early life: lecturer and Bradford City F.C.
David Ward was born in
Lincoln; his father was a plumber, and his mother worked on farms, in a canning factory and then in a care home.
He attended
Boston Grammar School
The Boston Grammar School is a Grammar school, selective grammar school and sixth form college for boys aged 11 to 18 and girls attending the sixth form aged 16–18 located in Boston, Lincolnshire, England.
A recent 2021 Ofsted report assesse ...
in
Boston, Lincolnshire
Boston is a market town and inland port in the borough of the same name in the county of Lincolnshire, England. Boston is north of London, north-east of Peterborough, east of Nottingham, south-east of Lincoln, south-southeast of Hull ...
, and then qualified as a member of the
Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy
The Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy (CIPFA) is a professional institute for accountants working in the public services, national audit agencies, in major accountancy firms, and in other bodies where public money needs to be ma ...
(CIPFA) in 1976.
He attended the
University of Bradford
The University of Bradford is a Public university, public research university located in the city of Bradford, West Yorkshire, England. A plate glass university, it received its royal charter in 1966, making it the 40th university to be creat ...
Management Centre to complete an
MBA and an
MPhil
The Master of Philosophy (MPhil; Latin ' or ') is a postgraduate degree. In the United States, an MPhil typically includes a taught portion and a significant research portion, during which a thesis project is conducted under supervision. An MPhil m ...
by research.
He began working at Leeds Polytechnic (later
Leeds Metropolitan University) in 1985, remaining there for the next 18 years as a Principal Lecturer in finance and strategic management, and as a Business Development Manager in charge of External Income Generation.
In 1996, he obtained an
MSc
MSC may refer to:
Computers
* Message Sequence Chart
* Microelectronics Support Centre of UK Rutherford Appleton Laboratory
* MIDI Show Control
* MSC Malaysia (formerly known as Multimedia Super Corridor)
* USB mass storage device class (USB MSC ...
from the
University of Leicester
, mottoeng = So that they may have life
, established =
, type = public research university
, endowment = £20.0 million
, budget = £326 million
, chancellor = David Willetts
, vice_chancellor = Nishan Canagarajah
, head_labe ...
.
In July 2004, he was seconded from Leeds Metropolitan University to work at
Bradford City Football Club
Bradford City Association Football Club is an English professional football club in Bradford, West Yorkshire. The team competes in League Two, the fourth tier of the English football league system and are currently managed by Mark Hughes.
Th ...
on a full-time basis
to help the club to build links with the local community and to engage with the predominantly Pakistani-Bangladeshi community that surrounds the club in Manningham. It is now host to a positive lifestyle centre, which has run programmes for more than 11,000 school children in the past seven years. There is also the football club in the community scheme, which works with 130 of Bradford's schools. On 5 May 2012, the bantamspast museum of Bradford City football club was closed down. Work began to turn the museum into a free school to be run by the One in a Million charity, but a week before the start of the school term in September the funding was pulled for the school. Ward called the move to pull the funding for the school as being "callous, cruel and quite stupid...and incredibly unfair on the parents and children and One in a Million."
Bradford public career
Ward was first elected to
Bradford Metropolitan District Councillor in
1984
Events
January
* January 1 – The Bornean Sultanate of Brunei gains full independence from the United Kingdom, having become a British protectorate in 1888.
* January 7 – Brunei becomes the sixth member of the Association of Southeast A ...
, and served for 26 years until he was elected to Parliament in 2010.
His specialist area was education;
he was a governor for 30 years at several special, primary and secondary schools and held the Education Portfolio on the council for four years. Whilst holding this post he visited
Kashmir
Kashmir () is the northernmost geographical region of the Indian subcontinent. Until the mid-19th century, the term "Kashmir" denoted only the Kashmir Valley between the Great Himalayas and the Pir Panjal Range. Today, the term encompas ...
with a Primary school and Secondary school headteacher to try to forge links with local schools.
In 2006, he worked with others to organise the first-ever community day for the Manningham area, and his work at the club was acknowledged later that year when Leeds Metropolitan University won the ''
Times Higher Education Supplement'' Award for "Outstanding contribution to the local community".
The charity set up by Ward focused mainly on anti-racist interventions and community cohesion events,
and he continues to support organisations such as the Sports Campaign Against Racism (SCAR).
He was the Liberal Democrat candidate at the
Bradford North by-election in 1990, and after his defeat he stood again in
Bradford North
Bradford North was a borough constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Until it was abolished for the 2010 general election, it elected one Member of Parliament (MP) by the first past the post sy ...
at the general elections in
1992
File:1992 Events Collage V1.png, From left, clockwise: 1992 Los Angeles riots, Riots break out across Los Angeles, California after the Police brutality, police beating of Rodney King; El Al Flight 1862 crashes into a residential apartment buildi ...
,
2001
The September 11 attacks against the United States by Al-Qaeda, which Casualties of the September 11 attacks, killed 2,977 people and instigated the global war on terror, were a defining event of 2001. The United States led a Participants in ...
and
2005
File:2005 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: Hurricane Katrina in the Gulf of Mexico; the Funeral of Pope John Paul II is held in Vatican City; "Me at the zoo", the first video ever to be uploaded to YouTube; Eris was discovered in ...
.
In 2005, he came second, 3,500 votes behind the incumbent
Labour Party MP
Terry Rooney. Bradford North was abolished in
boundary changes for the
general election in May 2010; Ward was elected for the new Bradford East seat, with a majority of 365 votes over Rooney.
Parliamentary career
He was a member of the Business, Innovation and Skills Select Committee from June 2010 to June 2012, when he became a member of the Education Select Committee.
Controversies
Comments on the Holocaust
On 25 January 2013, the Liberal Democrats reprimanded Ward for his "use of language" in a statement on his website about
Israel
Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...
's treatment of
Palestinians
Palestinians ( ar, الفلسطينيون, ; he, פָלַסְטִינִים, ) or Palestinian people ( ar, الشعب الفلسطيني, label=none, ), also referred to as Palestinian Arabs ( ar, الفلسطينيين العرب, label=non ...
, which he put on his blog the same day that he signed a memorial book in the
House of Commons marking
Holocaust Memorial Day.
He wrote there that he honoured "those who were persecuted and killed during the Holocaust" but also commented: "Having visited Auschwitz twice – once with my family and once with local schools – I am saddened that the Jews, who suffered unbelievable levels of persecution during the Holocaust, could within a few years of liberation from the death camps be inflicting atrocities on Palestinians in the new State of Israel and continue to do so on a daily basis in the West Bank and Gaza".
"It appears that the suffering by the Jews has not transformed their views on how others should be treated", he said in a later statement.
Karen Pollock, chief executive of the
Holocaust Educational Trust
The Holocaust Educational Trust (HET) is a British charity, based in London, whose aim is to "educate young people of every background about the Holocaust and the important lessons to be learned for today."
One of the Trust's main achievements ...
, said: "Mr Ward has deliberately abused the memory of the Holocaust, causing deep pain and offence – these comments are sickening and unacceptable and have no place in British politics". Jon Benjamin, chief executive of the
Board of Deputies of British Jews
The Board of Deputies of British Jews, commonly referred to as the Board of Deputies, is the largest and second oldest Jewish communal organisation in the United Kingdom, after only the Initiation Society which was founded in 1745. Established ...
, said: "We are outraged and shocked at these offensive comments about Jewish victims of the Holocaust and the suggestion that Jews should have learned a lesson from the experience."
In an updated blog entry on 26 January he stated he had "never for a moment intended to criticise or offend the Jewish people as a whole, either as a race or as a people of faith, and apologise sincerely for the unintended offence which my words caused" and stated that while his "criticisms of actions since 1948 in the Palestinian territories in the name of the State of Israel remain as strong as ever" he was "trying to make clear that everybody needs to learn the lessons of the Holocaust".
In a meeting with
Alistair Carmichael, the Liberal Democrats chief whip, Ward was told he would face disciplinary action if he repeated these words. A meeting Ward was to attend with the
Liberal Democrat Friends of Israel
Liberal Democrat Friends of Israel (LDFI) is an associated organisation whose stated objective is to 'maximise support for the State of Israel within the British Liberal Democrat Party', and to 'promote policies which lead to peace and security ...
in February 2013 over his use of language did not occur because he had not removed contentious phrasing from his website.
In an interview with
Aida Edemariam
Aida Edemariam is an Ethiopian-Canadian journalist based in the UK, who has worked in New York, Toronto and London. She was formerly deputy review and books editor of the Canadian ''National Post'', and is now a senior feature writer and editor a ...
of ''
The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
'' in February 2013, Ward said: "There is a huge operation out there, a machine almost, which is designed to protect the state of Israel from criticism. And that comes into play very, very quickly" with the result "I end up looking at" the vocabulary "I should use" which "is winning, for them. Because what I want to talk about is the fundamental question of how can they do this, and how can they be allowed to do this".
Comments on Israel
Ward
tweeted on 13 July 2013: "Am I wrong or are am I right? At long last the Zionists are losing the battle – how long can the apartheid State of Israel last?" He refused to apologise for questioning Israel's right to exist, and was suspended from the Liberal Democrats parliamentary party for three months.
The Liberal Democrats' chief whip Alistair Carmichael reminded him of his failure to keep a previous promise to use "proportionate and precise" language when commenting on Israel,
writing: "These interventions cause considerable offence rather than addressing questions of political substance about the plight of the Palestinian people and the right of Israel's citizens to live a life free of violence".
Jonathan Arkush
Jonathan Harry Samuel Arkush (born June 1954) is a British barrister and Jewish community leader. Arkush served as the 47th President of the Board of Deputies of British Jews from 17 May 2015 to 13 May 2018.
Board of Deputies
Arkush was elect ...
, vice-president of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, described the decision to take away Ward's party whip as "too little, too late" and "an empty gesture" because of the parliamentary recess. Parliament was due to sit for only two weeks in September 2013 before the end of his suspension.
Ward objected to his suspension believing his views are widely shared. The
Respect
Respect, also called esteem, is a positive feeling or action shown towards someone or something considered important or held in high esteem or regard. It conveys a sense of admiration for good or valuable qualities. It is also the process of ...
MP for
Bradford West
Bradford West is a List of United Kingdom Parliament constituencies, constituency represented in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, UK Parliament since 2015 United Kingdom gene ...
,
George Galloway
George Galloway (born 16 August 1954) is a British politician, broadcaster, and writer who is currently leader of the Workers Party of Britain, serving since 2019. Between 1987 and 2010, and then between 2012 and 2015, Galloway was a Member o ...
, defended Ward against his suspension, as did several Muslim activists in his constituency.
Within the Liberal Democrats, he was defended by former-MP
Michael Meadowcroft, who described his treatment by the party as "shameful".
Comments on the Board of Deputies
In November 2013, after Ward had said that it is "a shame there isn’t a powerful, well-funded Board of Deputies for
Roma
Roma or ROMA may refer to:
Places Australia
* Roma, Queensland, a town
** Roma Airport
** Roma Courthouse
** Electoral district of Roma, defunct
** Town of Roma, defunct town, now part of the Maranoa Regional Council
*Roma Street, Brisbane, a ...
", an editorial in ''
The Jewish Chronicle
''The'' () is a grammatical Article (grammar), article in English language, English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite ...
'' described his comments as "a clear restatement of the most basic antisemitic theme of all — that wealthy Jews buy up power" and said that the Liberal Democrats' had given a "contemptible response" with their inaction.
Comments on Hamas rockets
Ward
tweeted in July 2014 about the ongoing
Israeli conflict in Gaza suggesting that if he lived in Gaza, he would fire rockets at Israel: "The big question is – if I lived in #Gaza would I fire a rocket? – probably yes". Interviewed on
BBC Radio 5 Live
BBC Radio 5 Live is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC that broadcasts mainly news, sport, discussion, interviews and phone-ins. It is the principal BBC radio station covering sport in the United Kingdom, broadcast ...
, he initially refused to apologise.
Ward was condemned by other politicians.
Grant Shapps
Grant Shapps (born 14 September 1968) is a British politician who is serving as Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy since October 2022. He previously served as Secretary of State for Transport in the Premiership of Bo ...
, the
Chairman of the Conservative Party, called the tweet "essentially
nincitement to violence" and "completely irresponsible". Shapps urged him to delete the comment.
A Liberal Democrat spokesperson called the tweet "vile and crass"; the party leader Nick Clegg had called for peace in Israel and Gaza. Gavin Stollar, chair of the Liberal Democrats Friends of Israel, said Ward was "an ignorant political opportunist" who "is neither a Liberal nor a Democrat".
An apology was issued under his name by his party in late July. "I utterly condemn the violence on both sides in Israel and Gaza" he said, and "while I defend the right of Israel to exist and defend itself, I will continue to speak out for the rights of the Palestinian people".
In a response, the Board of Deputies said: "This morning's 'spin' in no way negates the fact that David Ward has deliberately placed himself outside the party’s core beliefs and values. We have seen Ward apologise and receive rebuke before, to no avail".
The following month, it emerged Ward would not face any disciplinary action. The party's chief whip, by now
Don Foster, said the comment had not brought the party into disrepute, nor was it antisemitic. Ward had assured Foster "he would do all he could to ensure comments he made would be in a form that would be difficult to misinterpret".
Comments following ''Charlie Hebdo'' attack
During the
republican marches in January 2015, following the
''Charlie Hebdo'' shooting and
Porte de Vincennes hostage crisis
On 9 January 2015, Amedy Coulibaly, armed with a submachine gun, an assault rifle, and two Tokarev pistols, entered and attacked a Hypercacher kosher supermarket in Porte de Vincennes in Paris, France. There, Coulibaly murdered four Jewish ho ...
during which four French Jews were murdered at a kosher supermarket, he tweeted "Je suis #Palestinian" (a play on the ''
Je suis Charlie'' slogan) and that Israeli Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu
Benjamin "Bibi" Netanyahu (; ; born 21 October 1949) is an Israeli politician who served as the ninth prime minister of Israel from 1996 to 1999 and again from 2009 to 2021. He is currently serving as Leader of the Opposition and Chairman of ...
's presence in Paris "makes
imfeel sick". The tweet was criticised by the Israeli ambassador.
A Liberal Democrat spokesman said "David Ward does not speak for the Liberal Democrats on this issue. He has well known and strongly held views on this issue but this tweet was clearly in bad taste".
The comments were also condemned by party leader Nick Clegg. Not long afterwards at an event,
Maajid Nawaz
Maajid Usman Nawaz (; born 2 November 1977) is a British activist and former radio presenter. He was the founding chairman of Quilliam. Until January 2022, he was the host of an LBC radio show on Saturdays and Sundays.
Born in Southend-on-Sea ...
, a former Islamist who is now a mainstream Liberal Democrat politician, said the Paris victims had been "murdered for being Jewish and no other reason" and asked his audience to acknowledge, if such a situation was reversed for Muslims in someone's tweet, "how hurtful such a sentiment at such a time can be".
Post-Parliament
Ward lost his Bradford East seat at the
2015 general election to
Labour
Labour or labor may refer to:
* Childbirth, the delivery of a baby
* Labour (human activity), or work
** Manual labour, physical work
** Wage labour, a socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer
** Organized labour and the labour ...
's
Imran Hussain who gained the seat with a majority of 7,084. Ward returned to local politics as a member of Bradford's Metropolitan District Council in the
May 2016 elections, and was reported to be studying at the time for a Middle East Politics and Security Studies MA at
Bradford University.
The Liberal Democrats reminded Ward of its opposition to antisemitism in May 2016 after he tweeted his support for
Naz Shah
Naseem Shah (; born 13 November 1973) is a British Labour Party politician. She was elected at the 2015 general election as Member of Parliament (MP) for Bradford West, winning the seat from George Galloway of the Respect Party. She has se ...
, the MP for
Bradford West
Bradford West is a List of United Kingdom Parliament constituencies, constituency represented in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, UK Parliament since 2015 United Kingdom gene ...
whom
Labour
Labour or labor may refer to:
* Childbirth, the delivery of a baby
* Labour (human activity), or work
** Manual labour, physical work
** Wage labour, a socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer
** Organized labour and the labour ...
suspended after she was revealed to have shared a Norman Finkelstein tweet showing a map with Israel re-located to the United States.
Tim Farron
Timothy James Farron (born 27 May 1970) is a British politician who served as Leader of the Liberal Democrats from 2015 to 2017. He has also served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Westmorland and Lonsdale since 2005, before which he worked ...
, leader of the Liberal Democrats, told a hearing of the Commons Home Affairs Committee's inquiry into antisemitism in October 2016 when asked about Ward's 2013 suspension that after "a disciplinary process has been gone through" and "they have served their time, then it’s appropriate" for the individual to return to active involvement in a "free organisation as they would do otherwise". Farron said he didn't agree with Ward's comments "some of which I would deem to be anti-semitic".
Ward was selected to contest his former seat of Bradford East at the
2017 general election
This national electoral calendar for 2017 lists the national/federal elections held in 2017 in all sovereign states and their dependent territories. By-elections are excluded, though national referendums are included.
January
*5 November ...
for the Liberal Democrats. Polling suggested he might defeat the Labour incumbent.
Shortly afterwards,
Theresa May
Theresa Mary May, Lady May (; née Brasier; born 1 October 1956) is a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party from 2016 to 2019. She previously served in David Cameron's cab ...
mentioned his "questionable record on antisemitism" on 26 April in the last
prime minister's questions before the election. Ward was removed as the party's candidate and suspended from party membership before an intended independent investigation.
Tim Farron said "Ward is unfit to represent the party" and the Liberal Democrats have "zero tolerance" for "anti-Semitic remarks".
Ward told
BBC News
BBC News is an operational business division of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) responsible for the gathering and broadcasting of news and current affairs in the UK and around the world. The department is the world's largest broadca ...
: "I would defy anybody to find one single derogatory comment I've made against a Jew which was not related to something being done in Israel".
Ward stood as an independent, but Hussain was returned as the constituency MP with a larger majority; Ward came a distant third, but ahead of the Liberal Democrat candidate.
In
May 2016 Ward successfully stood in the electoral ward of
Bolton and Undercliffe to become a Liberal Democrat
councillor
A councillor is an elected representative for a local government council in some countries.
Canada
Due to the control that the provinces have over their municipal governments, terms that councillors serve vary from province to province. Unl ...
for
Bradford Council
City of Bradford Metropolitan District Council is the local authority of the City of Bradford in West Yorkshire, England. It is a metropolitan district council, one of five in West Yorkshire and one of 36 in the metropolitan counties of England, ...
. However, after being expelled from the party, he sat as an independent.
Standing for re-election as an independent at the
2021 local elections, Ward lost his seat to Labour despite the Liberal Democrats not fielding a candidate.
References
External links
*
David Ward MP, Grassroot Diplomat*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ward, David
1953 births
Living people
Alumni of the University of Bradford
Alumni of the University of Leicester
Anti-Zionism in the United Kingdom
Councillors in Bradford
Independent councillors in the United Kingdom
Liberal Democrats (UK) councillors
Liberal Democrats (UK) MPs for English constituencies
People educated at Boston Grammar School
People from Boston, Lincolnshire
Politicians from Bradford
UK MPs 2010–2015