...and he faces call to lose his beloved allotment
THE storm over anti-Semitism in Labour has turned even dirtier – with a call for Jeremy Corbyn to be thrown off his beloved allotment.
It has emerged that the leader of Barnet Council in north London, where Mr Corbyn has cultivated fruit and vegetables for many years, has suggested the punishment is doled out for the Labour leader’s failure to tackle the crisis.
Although Mr Corbyn lives in neighbouring Islington, which he also represents in Parliament, his thriving and well-tended allotment is located within the Conservativecontrolled borough of Barnet, which also has one of the largest Jewish populations in the country.
Council leader Richard Cornelius raised question marks about the allotment following Mr Corbyn’s clash with veteran Labour MP Margaret Hodge, who called him a ‘racist and anti-Semite’.
The borough found itself at the centre of the anti-Semitism row earlier this year when senior Labour figures blamed it for their failure to topple the Tories at the local council elections, and Mr Corbyn cancelled a planned visit.
The threat to his allotment came after Barnet councillor John Marshall, a former Tory MP, said that Mr Corbyn should be invited to Barnet to discuss ‘the scourge of antiSemitism, in the interests of community cohesion and wellbeing’. According to council minutes seen by The Mail on Sunday, Mr Cornelius added: ‘This would be helpful. Margaret Hodge MP has labelled Jeremy Corbyn an anti-Semite. I wonder whether he should still have a Barnet allotment.’
Barnet’s deputy leader, Daniel Thomas, told the paper: ‘The council leader is right to question whether Mr Corbyn should have an allotment in Barnet.
‘He doesn’t even live here and his inaction on anti-Semitism offends many Barnet residents.’
Barnet Council, however, does not run the 45 allotments in the borough, with the land instead leased to a collection of allotment societies for a peppercorn rent.
Each allotment society is responsible for issues relating to its individual holders, including any complaints and the allocation of its plots. East Finchley Allotments, which administers Mr Corbyn’s patch, was not available for comment yesterday.