Reactions were negative. Katie Wheatley, a criminal law expert, said that if Ahmed had made such claims in Britain he could have faced prosecution for a hate crime. The Labour party immediately suspended him, saying it "deplores and does not tolerate any sort of racism or anti-Semitism." Jewish organisations condemned the comments, with the Board of Deputies of British Jews, saying, "We are appalled by Lord Ahmed's alleged comments which recall the worst Jewish conspiracy theories." In contrast, the chairman of the UK-based Kashmir Watch International was reported by "The Nation", an English-language Pakistani paper, as saying, "Lord Ahmed has, in fact, been made the target of a deep-rooted vendetta by the rivals – mostly the Jews lobby for his "crime" of exposing the increased anti-Muslim approach and policies of the Jews including their backed British media."