Labour councillor Alan Gardiner, who represents the Ings ward on Hull City Council, apologized for performing a gesture that appeared to be a Nazi salute during a council meeting on Thursday.
Gardiner made the gesture after telling another councilor to “shut up” during the meeting. While lifting his arm, the labour councillor was said to have laughed while repeating, "I'm a fascist, I'm a fascist, I'm a fascist."
Gardiner later apologized for his conduct, declaring in a statement, "I wholeheartedly apologise for my comments made in the chamber.
"After a heated debate, I made comments in irony, which upon reflection, I know are highly inappropriate."
Condemning the incident
A Labour Party source told The Telegraph: “We’ve been made aware of the video and will assess it.”
Sarita Robinson, a Jewish liberal-democrat councillor, condemned the incident, according to BBC News.
"It was deeply disturbing to see this from a senior Labour councillor at a live council meeting,” she said. "Labour said they would get serious about tackling antisemitism at every level; they need to act clearly and swiftly on this.
"Hull is a proud and welcoming city, and this action does not speak for us.
"As a Jewish person and minority in the city, it was horrific to see this display of ambient antisemitism."
The Labour Party has long-battled accusations of institutional and systematic antisemitism, especially under the leadership of Jeremy Corbyn.
While Britain’s Prime Minister Keir Starmer promised to flush antisemitism out of the party and has made efforts to expand Holocaust education, the party has continued to make headlines over comments made by its officials.
A junior minister in the British government's health department was sacked by Prime Minister Keir Starmer last month after a number of antisemitic and sexist text messages were brought to light.
The Labour Minister, Andrew Gwynne, apologized on the social media platform X for "badly misjudged" comments - which included complaining that someone’s name sounded “too Jewish” and “too materialistic” and expressing that he hoped an elderly constituent would die after she asked about bin collection.