As the member champion for Equality and Diversity at Cheshire East Council for the past year, I have taken an increasing interest in matters which affect all minority groups.

This includes all those whose race, faith, creed, sexual orientation or lifestyle would mark them out to be different.

I have noted there has been much discussion of late about what constitutes anti-Semitism; particularly among the political class. I am somewhat bemused by this discussion as I would have thought that it would be clear to all and should not require any interpretation.

However, I am clearly mistaken as evidenced by the recent debate within the Labour Party.

It was this debate that caused me to raise a question of the council’s leader at July’s meeting of the full council; when I asked for it to be confirmed that the definition that would be used by CEC would accord with that laid down by The International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance.

Given my interest in this matter I was very pleased to see that this week the Parliamentary Labour Party agreed by a sizeable majority to adopt this definition in full.

However, I was very disappointed when the Labour Party’s National Executive Committee agreed to adopt the same definition earlier in the week but it was considered necessary to caveat that decision.

Such a caveat effectively dilutes the definition and again opens the door to a less precise interpretation.

I trust my Labour colleagues on CEC will choose to follow the lead of their Parliamentary colleagues on this issue rather than adopting the position of the NEC.

Cllr Stewart Gardiner

Cheshire East Council