Israel minister slams Labour anti-Semites

thE israeli cabinet minister tipped to be his country’s next prime minister has accused the labour leadership of anti-semitism.

public security minister Gilad Erdan said his government had become concerned by the views expressed by senior party figures.

accusations of anti-semitism overshadowed labour’s conference earlier this year and party leader Jeremy Corbyn has been criticised for referring to the anti-israel group hamas as ‘friends’.

on a visit to Brussels, Mr Erdan said: ‘We recognise and we see that there are antisemitic views in many of the leadership of the current labour party.

‘We hope it will be changed… that they will come to the right decisions about people in their party who don’t understand that hamas is a recognised terror organisation, that you cannot have a regular relationship with a terror organisation.’

he was in Brussels to lobby European parliament figures to stop funding for groups campaigning for boycotts of israeli goods.

asked if he was suggesting Mr Corbyn himself was an anti-semite, Mr Erdan said: ‘i didn’t say it. i said there are views that are very close to anti-semitism in the leadership of the labour party today in the UK.’

Mr Corbyn told Mps investigating accusations of anti-semitism in the party this summer that he regretted once calling members of hamas and hezbollah ‘friends’.

Mr Erdan, the second most senior minister in his party, said a labour review of antisemitism last year had been ‘empty’.

a labour spokesman told the Guardian the party and its leader ‘campaign against and condemn all forms of anti-semitism’, with ‘tough rules’ adopted against it.