JEZZA: I’M NOT SAYING SORRY
Leader insists he’s an anti-racist
JEREMY Corbyn sparked fury yesterday after refusing to apologise for the anti-Semitism scandal that has torn through his party.
The Labour leader has faced a number of issues in the past year, including claims he had previously laid a wreath at the grave of terrorists who killed and mutilated Israeli athletes.
Asked to apologise for the dozens of incidents that have plagued his party, Mr Corbyn refused and instead insisted he was not an antiSemite.
Asked if he was anti-Semitic, he said: “No, absolutely not – I’ve spent my whole life fighting racism in any form and I will die fighting racism in any form.
Scourge
“I completely and utterly reject the idea that I’m any kind of racist.
“I simply say this – I am an antiracist and will die an anti-racist, anti-Semitism is a scourge on society.”
This comes despite the veteran socialist once supporting an antiSemitic mural which showed caricatures of Jewish men on a pile of bodies.
Defending this, he explained: “I was worried about the idea of murals being taken down.
“I was perhaps too hasty in my judgment, but it has been taken down and I’m glad it was.” His comments come as Labourbacking union leaders Len McCluskey and Mark Serwotka again claimed anti-Semitism was not a problem in the Labour Party.
Unite union general secretary Mr McLuskey accused Jewish leaders of showing “truculent hostility” to Labour, and dismissed the anti-Semitism row as “mood music”.
This was echoed by PCS chief Mr Serwotka, who claimed Israel created the row to mask its own “atrocities”.
Labour MP Luciana Berger hit out at the accusations, labelling them the “the worst kind of antiJewish conspiracy theory”.
Former minister Ian Austin also blasted their remarks, labelling them “offensive nonsense”.
He added: “The truth about Jeremy is that he is much angrier with the people complaining about anti-Semitism than he is with the people responsible for it.”