Corbyn sacks Labour MP after call for vote on Brexit

JEREMY CORBYN sacked Owen Smith last night after he said Labour should consider abandoning Brexit.

Mr Smith was replaced as shadow Northern Ireland secretary after he claimed Labour had “the right to keep asking if Brexit remains the right choice”, and called for the UK to remain in the single market and for a public vote on the final deal.

Mr Corbyn was under pressure from Brexit-backing Labour MPS to sack Mr Smith after the frontbencher outlined his own Brexit policies in The Guardian.

Tony Lloyd, the shadow housing minister, is Mr Smith’s replacement.

The split came as Mr Corbyn faced intense criticism over his intervention in a row about an anti-semitic mural.

It yesterday emerged Mr Corbyn questioned a decision to destroy a mural of Jewish bankers counting money on the backs of ethnic minorities. The graphic was painted on to an east London property in 2012, but was removed by the borough of Tower Hamlets.

Mr Corbyn was found to have sided with Kalen Ockerman, the artist, who claimed it was “freedom of expression”.

A spokesman for Mr Corbyn said: “The mural was offensive, used anti-semitic imagery, which has no place in our society, and it is right that it was removed.”

Mr Corbyn was openly challenged by a number of Labour MPS, including Luciana Berger, chair of Jewish Labour, who said that the response had been “wholly inadequate”.

Last night, Mr Corbyn said: “I sincerely regret that I did not look more closely at the image, the contents of which are disturbing and anti-semitic.

“I wholeheartedly support its removal.”