Jewish voters shun ‘new nasty party’ over anti-Semitism
LABOUR councillors yesterday blamed Jeremy Corbyn’s handling of the party’s anti-Semitism crisis for a loss of support among Jewish voters.
They said it was shameful that the Tories had regained control of Barnet Council in north London – which had been a key target for Mr Corbyn’s party before polling day.
Barnet has a large Jewish population and Labour councillors said they had been ‘punished’ by voters for the party’s failure to get a grip on the tide of antiSemitism claims.
One Labour MP told MailOnline: ‘The anti-Semitism affects the Jewish community, but it goes wider than that. We are seen as the nasty party.’
One defeated councillor in Barnet, Adam Langleben, attacked Mr Corbyn, saying: ‘We must never have another election like this. No community group should have their vote dictated by their safety. That should shame us, Labour.’
He added: ‘Every Jewish Labour household we visited, people said, “Not this time”. Activists were being told, ‘this is a racist party, an anti-Semitic party’, doors were slammed in their faces. We, as Jewish Labour activists, were told we were endorsing anti-Semitism.’
London Mayor Sadiq Khan admitted there were ‘lots of voters, Jewish people in London, who don’t feel comfortable voting Labour’. He told the BBC: ‘It can’t be right that anybody feels that our party is a safe place for someone who is an anti-Semitic person.’
Speaking in Barnet, Theresa May said: ‘People of all faiths have rejected vile anti-Semitism which has gone unchallenged in the Labour Party for too long.’
The Tories had targeted wards with large Jewish populations. In Barnet, which went from no overall control to a Tory majority, the Conservatives made a clean sweep in the ward of Hale and took all three seats in the ward of West Hendon, a long-time Labour stronghold.
Labour did not win any London councils from the Tories. It was also swept out in other wards across England with significant Jewish populations.
Tom Watson, the party’s deputy leader, said: ‘ There is no doubt [the] Jewish community has sent us a message.’
Labour’s group leader in Barnet, Barry Rawlings, said the party’s anti-Semitism row had ‘ made a difference’, adding:
‘Doors slammed in their faces’
‘Obviously Jeremy Corbyn has a responsibility as the leader. It will be a long road back to regaining that trust.’
Mayor of Manchester Andy Burnham said: ‘It’s clear anti-Semitism was a very real issue in this campaign.’
Citing Salford’s Kersal ward, where over 40 per cent of the voters are Jewish, as an example, he told Sky News: ‘The hurt and the anger is painfully real in those places … there is a real sense of rawness in the Jewish community.’
He said the Labour Party needed to ‘take a much firmer grip on this issue’.
Ivor Caplin, of the Jewish Labour Movement, said: ‘For the party of anti-racism to lose seats because of anti-Semitism is a sad chapter in our proud history.’
Labour MP John Mann, an outspoken critic of Mr Corbyn, wrote on Twitter that the anti-Semitism row had ‘cost Labour badly last night’.
Tory MP Anna Soubry MP tweeted: ‘Voters are seeing #Corbyn #Momentum for what they really are. Brutish apologists for anti-Semitism.’
A Jewish Holocaust survivor, who collected an MBE yesterday, hit out at Mr Corbyn over his handling of antiSemitism. Martin Stern, 79, accused the Labour leader of building a reputation as a humanitarian ‘on false premises’.