A haven for bigotry

MEANWHILE, it is now ‘ beyond doubt’ that labour is ‘institutionally racist’.

no, not the words of this newspaper, or the Tories, or outraged representatives of the Jewish community.

This is the devastating judgment of Chuka Umunna, one of labour’s leading lights and a walking advertisement for the success of multi-racial Britain.

The son of a nigerian immigrant father and Anglo-Irish mother, Mr Umunna joined the party largely because of its commitment to racial equality.

So for him now to brand it a haven for bigots and anti-Semites is a truly shocking indictment of Jeremy Corbyn and his Marxist acolytes.

And it drags labour’s reputation even further into the gutter. For if someone with Mr Umunna’s background doesn’t trust his party to protect the rights of minorities, who on earth would?

Certainly not former racial equalities chief Trevor Phillips. Yesterday he threw his own grenade into the debate, saying racism was ‘killing the party’ and strongly implying that Mr Corbyn himself was anti-Semitic.

The official labour reaction was depressingly predictable – ‘Jeremy and the leadership are life-long anti-racists, who are determined to tackle anti-Semitism.’

no-one believes this any more, just as noone believes Mr Corbyn wants ‘kinder, gentler politics’. Under his leadership, this once great party has become mired in a swamp of bigotry, bullying and intolerance.

So the big question remains: how hard are Mr Umunna and other moderate labour MPs prepared to fight to save the party they profess to love so much? We already knew that university vice- chancellors were pocketing unconscionably vast salaries, but the Mail’s revelation that even managers of student halls of residence can earn over £1million a year is truly obscene. What an insult to students who leave university with colossal debts for degrees which often bring them little or no benefit in the world of work.