MP calls Corbyn ‘racist’ as Labour chiefs redefine anti-semitism

JEREMY CORBYN was called an “antisemite and a racist” by a veteran Labour MP last night as the party was plunged into a fresh anti-semitism row.

Margaret Hodge, a well-respected Jewish MP and former minister, subjected the Labour leader to an extraordinary rant in Parliament following the party’s decision to reject an internationally recognised definition of antisemitism.

Ms Hodge vented her fury over the decision by Labour’s national executive committee to flout the advice of Jewish MPS, leaders and the Chief Rabbi, all of whom had urged the party to reconsider its new code of conduct.

Ms Hodge told Mr Corbyn: “You have proved you don’t want people like me in the party.”

Mr Corbyn responded flatly, telling her: “I’m sorry you feel like that”. Ms Hodge’s grandmother and uncle were murdered in the Holocaust.

The confrontation came three hours after the party’s governing body decided to ignore the pleas of the Jewish community and approve a new code of conduct on anti-semitism which differed from the internationally recognised version created by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance. The original definition has been implemented in full by the Government, the Scottish Parliament, the Welsh Assembly, the Crown Prosecution service and 124 local authorities.

But Labour has opted to alter four specific examples given in the guidance, provoking a backlash from MPS and Jewish leaders, who have accused Labour of treating anti-semitism differently to other forms of racism.

Several senior Labour figures urged the party to listen to the concerns of the Jewish community. They included Tom Watson, Labour’s deputy leader, and Margaret Beckett, a veteran Labour MP, both of whom made impassioned speeches warning that the party’s reputation would be stained if it proceeded as planned.

The committee’s decision was condemned by Jewish groups across the country, with the Board of Deputies,

‘The decision by the NEC and the message it sends to Britain’s Jewish community is utterly contemptible’

Jewish Leadership Council and Community Secretary Trust expressing a “mixture of incredulity and outrage”.

Ephraim Mirvis, the Chief Rabbi, had warned the previous evening that a failure to adopt the IHRA’S definition would put Labour on the “wrong side of the fight” against racism.

Describing the choice facing Mr Corbyn’s party as a “watershed moment”, Mr Mirvis urged Labour to “make the right decision for Britain”.

Mr Mirvis said it was “astonishing” that the party’s national executive committee believed it was “more qualified” than British Jews to determine what constitutes anti-semitism.

Wes Streeting MP, chair of the all party parliamentary group for British Jews, said the decision taken by the NEC had been “utterly contemptible”.