Corbyn humiliated
LABOUR sUffERs ANTI-sEMITIsM BACKLAsH
LABOUR leader Jeremy Corbyn was facing a backlash from his own party last night as voter disgust with his failure to combat anti-Semitism cost it key local election seats.
The north London borough of Barnet, which has the highest number of Jewish residents in the UK, was the focus of discontent as jubilant Conservatives unexpectedly seized power.
Labour had set its sights on taking charge for the first time in the authority’s 54-year history and had been odds-on favourites to gain a majority on the council.
The last elections in 2014 left the Tories and Labour on almost level pegging. The Tories lost overall control in March when a councillor quit to sit as an independent.
But Thursday’s election saw the Tories gain seven seats to give them 38 councillors and Labour lose five to finish on 25.
Protests
The Labour leadership’s refusal to act on anti-Semitism was blamed for non-Jewish as well as Jewish voters turning their backs.
Ousted Labour councillor Adam Langleben, of the Jewish Labour Movement, said: “Our party has lost its way. It is seen by far too many people in the Jewish community as racist.”
He challenged Mr Corbyn to go ahead with today’s planned victory visit and “begin the healing process by issuing a full apology to show he understands contemporary anti-Semitism and why the leadership have not got a grip of it”.
Labour MPs also criticised the leadership and those in the party who claim protests about anti-Semitism are just a “smear” to damage Mr Corbyn for being Left-wing and pro-Palestinian.
Labour MP John Mann, the non-Jewish chairman of Parliament’s all-party group on anti-Semitism, tweeted: “Those who called anti-Semitism a smear cost Labour badly last night. A Jewish member for more than 60 years told me on the doorstep he couldn’t vote Labour in Barnet.”
Deputy Labour leader Tom Watson admitted the Jewish community “sent us a message”.
Prime Minister Theresa May capitalised on the surprise win by including Barnet in her election victory tour. She told cheering supporters: “People of all faiths have rejected the vile anti-Semitism that has gone unchallenged in the Labour Party for too long.”
Elsewhere, Conservatives gained a seat from Labour in the Stamford Hill West ward of Hackney in east London, and took another from Labour in the Kersal ward of Salford in Greater Manchester, both strongly Jewish communities.
Polling expert Sir John Curtice said analysis suggested Labour got fewer votes in wards where more than four per cent of voters identified themselves as Jewish in the 2011 census.
Meanwhile former London mayor Ken Livingstone angered many in the party by signalling he would fight any bid to expel him for claiming “Hitler was supporting Zionism before he went mad and ended up killing six million Jews”.
He has been suspended since 2016 but claims the allegations against him are false.