Labour civil war over Jewish MP
A LABOUR bid to force a vote of no confidence in a prominent Jewish MP was dropped last night following a backlash against the party leadership.
Amid mounting pressure, Liverpool Wavertree constituency party announced it was abandoning a censure vote against Luciana Berger, who has led the campaign against anti-Semitism in the party.
Labour’s deputy leader Tom Watson last night wrote to the party’s general-secretary Jennie Formby demanding the suspension of the local branch. He wrote: ‘It is clear to me that Luciana Berger is being bullied. This behaviour by her local party is intolerable.’
The decision to drop the move against Miss Berger, who is heavily pregnant, followed a backlash against the party leadership.
Shadow chancellor John McDonnell was branded ‘a disgrace’ after suggesting she could avoid a vote of no confidence if she pledged loyalty to Jeremy Corbyn.
Miss Berger, parliamentary chairman of the Jewish Labour Movement, has been a prominent critic of Mr Corbyn over his failure to tackle the party’s anti-Semitism crisis.
Former minister Ian Austin said of Mr McDonnell’s intervention: ‘It’s like something out of the Soviet Union’s show trials where people were let off if they confessed their disloyalty and shouted “Long Live Stalin”.’
Meanwhile, the ‘terrifying’ scale of Labour’s anti-Semitism crisis was laid bare last night as it emerged 4,000 examples of hatred will be submitted to the party.
Screenshots of vile comments and images from Labour Facebook groups and Twitter accounts include a member of Momentum’s steering committee who shared a message accusing Saudi Arabia of being in thrall to ‘Zionist paymasters’.
Apsana Begum apologised after being contacted by the Mail.