How long can Labour dodge this toxic issue?

Acynic might think that Labour’s leadership is deliberately dragging its feet in its response to claims that some malign sections of the party are deeply anti-Semitic.

For that is the only logical reason for seeming to dodge the toxic issue which is currently doing profound damage to the party’s reputation.

A festival at the weekend chaired by Unite union leader Steve Turner had the chance to put the record straight — particularly considering that the gathering’s mission statement was: ‘ Let’s come together to build on the vision and energy of Labour’s Manifesto, and win a Britain and world for the many, not the few.’

The two-day ARISE festival was also described as ‘ a weekend of people-powered politics, internationalism and solidarity, discussing Labour’s Left ideas to change society for the better’.

Topics on the agenda included ‘After Gaza and Jerusalem — it is time for Labour to speak out on Palestine’ and the welfare of people in Latin America.

Jenny Manson, chair of the pro-Jeremy corbyn Jewish Voice for Labour group, also addressed a session, but she is on record as having said that no one in her organisation has ever experienced any anti-Semitism in the Labour Party.

Among those attending the jamboree was Shadow chancellor John McDonnell, who has called for a speedy resolution to the controversy which was fanned when veteran Labour MP Dame Margaret Hodge, who is Jewish and lost relatives in the Holocaust, reportedly called corbyn a ‘racist and anti-Semite’. She now faces disciplinary action.

no wonder more than a third of people think corbyn tolerates anti-Semitism.