BOOT OUT BIGOTS
Starmer All the anti-Semites will be expelled from party
Sir Keir Starmer has vowed to stamp out anti-Semitism in the Labour Party if he wins the race to succeed Jeremy Corbyn.
The shadow Brexit secretary insisted the party had not done enough to tackle the issue which plag ued it under Corbyn. He said: “We should have done more on anti- Semitism. If you are anti-Semitic, you shouldn’t be in the Labour Party.
“What I would do is lead from the top and say it’s my responsibility to deal with it. I wouldn’t say it’s for somebody else. I want the files, I want to know the numbers on my desk so that I can monitor this.
“Only when people who have left our party because of anti- Semitism feel that they can return will I be truly satisfied that we have dealt with the problem.
“There has to be leadership from the top and a personal involvement in this.
“I never want our activists, our members, our supporters, ever to knock on a door again and to be met with the response, ‘ I usually vote Labour but I’m not going to do so because of anti-Semitism.’” Starmer – who launched his l eade r sh i p campaign in Manchester – said that he had argued with i n the party for tougher action, with a u t oma t i c expulsion for anyone found to be ant iSemitic.
“It seemed to me that if you have been chucked out of the Labour Party for supporting another political party, you should be chucked out for being anti-Semitic,” he added.
“I had those conversations around the shadow cabinet table.”
Starmer has emerged as the clear favourite among Labour MPs and was the first of the six contenders to secure the 22 nominations needed to progress to the next stage of the contest.
Shadow business secretary Rebecca Long- Bai ley, the favourite of the left, and backbenchers Lisa Nandy and Jess Phillips have also passed the threshold. But shadow foreign secretary Emily Thornberry, with 10 nominations, and Clive Lewis, with just four, appear to be struggling.
They have until 2.30pm tomorrow to get the necessary support or be forced to drop out . Starmer would not be d r awn i nt o personal cr it ici sm of
Corbyn, although he said that it was right that he was now stepping down after Labour’s “devastating” election defeat.
Unlike Long- Bailey – who gav e Corby n 10/ 10 a nd Thornberry who rated him at 0/10 – Starmer refused to mark him for his leadership.
“Jeremy Corbyn led us through really difficult times as a Labour Party,” Starmer said.
“He positioned us in the right place on anti-austerity but we lost the election and now he is stepping down. That is the right thing to do. I am not going to get into ranking Jeremy Corbyn out of 10. I think it trivialises him.
“He is a friend and a colleague. I respect him, thank him for what he has done – but we are moving on now.”
Starmer has been keen to empha s i se h i s rad ic a l credentials in a pitch to grassroots party members who are thought to be more left-wing than the MPs and whose votes will ultimately determine the outcome of the contest. He dismissed suggestions that he was too “centrist” to succeed.
“I want the Labour Party to be radical in the sense that we need fundamental change. Frankly, I f ind all the labels just get in the way,” he said.
Long-Bailey also addressed the anti- Semitism issue at a Labour event in Staffordshire.
She said: “Lifelong Jewish voters in our communities just couldn’t support us because we’d lost their trust.
“We’re the party of Harold Laski, the Lever brothers, Ralph Miliband and Philip Gould – and we’ve got to make sure this never happens again and that this trust is rebuilt quickly.
“And voters didn’t trust that we were united within our party. Our voters expect us to be united and professional – and yes, we are passionate about what we bel ieve in because it matters so much.
“But that passion must never spill over into abuse, wherever it is coming from.”
I want the files. I want numbers on my desk to monitor this..