The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
Fresh calls for Corbyn to tackle anti-Semitism
politics: Pressure mounts on Labour leader over abusive social media sites
Jeremy Corbyn is under intensifying pressure to take early action to tackle anti-Semitism in Labour amid fresh claims of abuse by his supporters.
The party has moved to distance itself from a series of pro-Corbyn social media groups after an investigation by The Sunday Times found they contained hundreds of violent and abusive messages.
The claims came as a Labour frontbencher warned there was “real alarm” at the scale of the problem – while comedian Eddie Izzard, who became a member of the party’s ruling national executive committee (NEC), said they needed to “make amends” to the Jewish community.
Shadow digital minister Liam Byrne said Mr Corbyn now needed to make good his promise to Jewish leaders to tackle the issue, pointing to the backlog of around 70 cases of anti-Semitism which have still to be dealt with.
He echoed deputy leader Tom Watson in highlighting the case of former London mayor Ken Livingstone – a longtime ally of the Labour leader who remains suspended over comments suggesting Hitler supported Zionism in the 1930s.
“I personally do not think Mr Corbyn is an anti-Semite, I don’t think he has an anti-Semitic bone in his body,” Mr Byrne told BBC Radio 4’s The World this Weekend.
“But the reality is now that we need action and not simply words. We have got a lot of disciplinary cases stacking up. Mr Livingstone is at the top of that queue.”
In a statement, Izzard said the issue had to be dealt with “for the good of the people Labour seeks to represent”.
The Sunday Times said its investigation into 20 of the biggest pro-Corbyn Facebook groups had uncovered routine attacks on Jewish people, including Holocaust denial.
It reported that 12 senior staff working for Mr Corbyn and shadow chancellor John McDonnell were members of the groups.
A Labour source said such sites routinely received hundreds of postings a day, most of which were perfectly innocent messages about party policies or events.
Many of the staff concerned were either no longer active on Facebook or were unaware they were members of these groups and had not seen the content highlighted by the paper.