Starmer must purge ALL Labour’s bigots
ACCORDING to a Chinese proverb famously coined by Mao Tse-Tung, ‘ The fish rots from the head down’. His point was that corruption in any organisation begins at the top.
Never was this metaphor more apt than in describing Labour’s rancid descent into anti-Semitism under Jeremy Corbyn. Not only did he condone it, he actively colluded in it.
He shared platforms with Jew-haters. He broadcast his support on social media for a plainly anti-Semitic mural. And he held a wreath near the tomb of members of Black September, the terror group responsible for the Munich massacre of Israeli athletes.
Labour was once the natural home of Jews who fled here to escape persecution by totalitarian regimes from Nazi Germany to Soviet Russia.
How utterly shaming that it should become the first mainstream party to be investigated by the Equality and Human Rights Commission for institutional anti-Semitism.
At the High Court yesterday, Labour’s new managers sought to draw a line under this hideous chapter in its history.
They issued an unreserved apology and offered damages to seven former staff members who spoke out in a BBC Panorama programme about the extent of Labour anti- Semitism, only to be vilified and defamed by the Corbynistas for doing so.
All well and good. But it will take more than fine words to cleanse the party, as new leader Sir Keir Starmer is about to find out.
Yesterday’s court humiliation brought no hint of contrition from the Labour Left, who still deny that anti-Semitism was ever really a problem. Unrepentant Union paymaster Len McCluskey described the damages settlement as ‘a misuse of party funds’. Mr Corbyn said it was ‘a political decision’.
Tragically, they don’t even recognise the ugly strand of bigotry that still runs through the party – and must be fully eradicated if it is to regain trust and respect.
Mr Starmer has shown good intent by sacking Corbyn protégé Rebecca LongBailey from his shadow cabinet for sharing an anti-Semitic conspiracy theory.
But if he truly wants to stop the Labour fish from rotting, he must now embark on a much wider and more ruthless purge.