Poison of anti-Semitism has infected Labour Party

MANY people are genuinely scared by the prospect of a Labour government led by Jeremy Corbyn. A hard-Left government in Britain would have been unthinkable just a few short years ago.

But many Jewish people are also scared of a government led by Corbyn because increasingly modern Labour is seen as anti-Semitic. Fearfully, they look back to what happened in Germany in the 1930s. In Britain we have always been comforted by the knowledge that “it couldn’t happen here”. Now many in our Jewish community are not so sure.

The latest anti-Semitism row is over a mural by someone called Kalen Ockerman. It depicts a group of businessmen who are crude Jewish caricatures huddling round a Monopoly board resting on a table formed by oppressed, naked figures.

It’s ugly, it’s horrible and you’d have to be an idiot (or the current leader of the Labour Party) not to recognise it for what it is: anti-Semitic propaganda.

In 2012 when he heard that this mural was to be painted over, Corbyn asked why and condemned the destruction of controversial political art. Now he says that he didn’t look closely enough at the work which he now concedes to be “deeply disturbing and anti-Semitic”.

But at last there are signs that moderate Labour MPs have had enough and are beginning to find some backbone. Chuka Umunna has pointed out that Labour would be far stricter dealing with discrimination “with regard to black people”. He’s right of course.

This evening the Jewish Leadership Council and the Board of Deputies have encouraged people to gather in Parliament Square. They have sent a letter to Jeremy Corbyn entitled Enough Is Enough. Indeed it is.