LABOUR HATRED BOILS OVER
Open warfare as union chief savages MPs for defending Corbyn critics
LABOUR descended into open civil war last night after union baron Len McCluskey accused backbench MPs of undermining Jeremy Corbyn with ‘disgusting’ anti-Semitism smears.
Mr McCluskey, the boss of Unite and a powerful supporter of the party leader, said Labour moderates would be ‘held to account’ for their attacks on the party leader.
He also named several backbenchers who have criticised the leadership, suggesting they should face mandatory re-selection.
And he said that watching Labour MPs ‘demean and attack’ Mr Corbyn publicly had ‘made my stomach churn’.
His intervention came as Labour MPs staged an extraordinary demonstration of solidarity with a Jewish colleague giving evidence against a Corbyn ally.
More than 40 Labour MPs and peers effectively formed a human shield around Ruth Smeeth as she arrived at the disciplinary hearing of Marc Wadsworth. They were confronted by placard-waving supporters of Mr Wadsworth.
Mr McCluskey’s intervention will do little to calm the fears of critics who feel the party leader is not doing enough to root out antiSemitism in the party.
Amid signs last night that the party was more divided than ever over its response to the antiSemitism crisis:
Mr Wadsworth insisted he would be ‘exonerated’;
Chris Williamson was one of three Labour MPs at the hearing as a witness for Mr Wadsworth;
Jewish leaders who met Mr Corbyn over anti-Semitism on Tuesday said he was simply ‘shrugging his shoulders’;
The most explosive intervention however, came from Mr McCluskey. Writing in the New Statesman, the trade union boss said antiSemitism ‘has joined a line of other [issues] being used by a group of backbench Labour MPs to attack and undermine Jeremy Corbyn’.
He added: ‘I look with disgust at the behaviour of the Corbyn-hater MPs who join forces with the most reactionary elements of the media establishment and I understand why there is a growing demand for mandatory reselection.
‘Promiscuous critics must expect to be criticised, and those who wish to hold Corbyn to account can expect to be held to account themselves.’
He said MPs on Labour’s centrist wing were ‘working overtime trying to present the Labour Party as a morass of misogyny, antiSemitism and bullying’.
He went on to name five MPs – Wes Streeting, Chris Leslie, Neil Coyle, John Woodcock and Ian Austin.
As the general secretary of Unite, Len McCluskey’s support of Mr Corbyn comes with the backing of more than a million union members. Unite is the largest Labour affiliate and party donor.
Last month key Corbyn ally and Unite candidate Jennie Formby was named as Labour’s next general secretary.
A series of Labour MPs made emotive statements in the House of Commons last week about their own experiences of anti- Jewish prejudice in the party.
But Mr McCluskey said: ‘To watch as these so-called social democrats tried to demean and attack, in front of our enemy, a decent and honourable man who has fought racism and anti-Semitism all his life and who has breathed life and hope back into the hearts of millions, especially the young, made my stomach churn.
‘To see Tory MPs cheer and applaud them was shameful.’
Mr Streeting hit back, saying: ‘No abuse, intimidation or threats of deselection will prevent me from voicing the concerns of my Jewish constituents about antiSemitism in the Labour Party.’
Mr Coyle tweeted: ‘Jeremy says antisemitism must be tackled. Len claims it doesn’t exist. Undermining the leader and Party efforts to tackle the problem.’
And Mr Woodcock tweeted: ‘Len McCluskey should focus on jobs for Unite members.’
A senior Labour spokesman said Mr Corbyn had made absolutely clear ‘ he will lead the drive to eradicate anti-Semitism from the party and will not tolerate it’.
‘A morass of misogyny’
I look with disgust at the Corbyn hater MPs and understand why there is a growing demand for mandatory reselection
To watch them attack this decent and honourable man, who has fought racism and anti-Semitism all his life, made my stomach churn
Len McCluskey writing in the New Statesman
THE more Jeremy Corbyn seeks to exploit the Windrush scandal for political capital, the clearer it becomes that he’s trying to divert attention from the all- too- real racism tearing his own party apart.
He was at it again yesterday, calling on Theresa May to review her ‘cruel’ migration policy in light of the mistreatment of early post-war settlers from the Commonwealth, accusing her of deliberately fostering hostility to all migrants.
In fact, as he well knows, the Windrush generation have been unintended victims of over-zealous bureaucracy and a classic Home Office foul-up. As home secretary, Mrs May’s aim was to create a hostile environment only for illegal migrants.
This week’s revelation that at least 27,000 have been arrested in the past four years (and these were only the ones who were caught) gives some idea of the enduring scale of the problem.
It was no part of Mrs May’s plan, as her heartfelt apologies and promises of redress have made clear, to cause difficulties for British citizens such as the Windrush generation, who have paid taxes for decades and have every right to be here.
Now contrast her determination to make amends to an accidentally wronged minority with Mr Corbyn’s failure to tackle anti-Semitism in his party.
There is nothing accidental about his hard-Left supporters’ vicious attacks on prominent Jews. Yet when confronted at a meeting of Jewish community leaders, he is said merely to have shrugged.
Indeed, he has let this scandal become so toxic that yesterday dozens of Labour politicians had to form a human shield around the Jewish MP and abuse victim Ruth Smeeth as she braved pro-Corbyn demonstrators to give evidence at a party anti-Semitism hearing.
Yes, the inadvertent injustices to the Windrush generation have been deeply lamentable. But the spectre of antiSemitism gripping our main opposition party is nothing less than chilling. MORE than 350 years ago, Britain liberated newspapers from state control, becoming the birthplace of press freedom, the bedrock of democracy. So how humiliating that the threat of oppressive regulation has left us in 40th place in the latest World Press Freedom Index. Peers plotting to force papers further under the state’s thumb should be ashamed.