Photo plunges Corbyn into new anti-semitism storm
JEREMY CORBYN has been swept into a fresh anti-semitism row after being photographed with an activist who once called for Holocaust denial to be treated as free speech.
The Labour leader was last night condemned by Jewish groups over an image of him taken outside the party’s annual conference, standing by Miko Peled, a controversial activist who last year said people should be free to ask: “Holocaust: yes or no?”
The Israeli-american posted the picture on Twitter on Sunday, stating: “Brilliant to see the courageous Jeremy Corbyn. Accessible, gracious and generous on the street with people.” Mr Peled, who previously described Jews as having “a reputation for being sleazy thieves”, was photographed 24 hours later posing with Chris Williamson MP, a long-standing Corbyn supporter, at a fringe event in Liverpool. The latest controversy comes just 12 months after Mr Peled was condemned by senior Labour figures, including Tom Watson, when, at last year’s Brighton conference, he compared Israel to the Nazis.
Karen Pollock, of the Holocaust Educational Trust, said the appearance with Mr Peled was “precisely the sort of thing that gives every signal that it is free rein for anti-semites in the Labour Party. Why would a political leader who claims to have been against racism all of his life want a picture with him?”
Last night a Labour spokesman said Mr Peled had not been given access to the conference, adding: “Jeremy has been stopped by hundreds of people.”
For someone accused of not changing his views since he was a student, Jeremy Corbyn “the Remainer” is an intriguing reincarnation of a politician Nigel Farage considered a Eurosceptic.
Described as a “staunch Brexiteer” by Kate Hoey and with a voting record opposing European expansion at every opportunity, it is perhaps not surprising that his own brother Piers once said he only backed Remain as a “party management operation”.
Yesterday’s fudged Brexit motion at conference speaks volumes of the conflict at the heart his leadership.
As Hoey said at a Leave fringe event: “People in parliament now on my side who are most against Brexit … are just using it as an excuse to get at Jeremy.”
Brexiteer MP Graham Stringer was more explicit: “Jeremy and John (Mcdonnell) have an instinctive understanding where our core support lies. They voted with Kate and I on many, many occasions on European issues.”
Observers at Keir Starmer’s speech yesterday cannot fail to have noticed that Corbyn reserved his only hug for a speaker called David Mallon after he called the EU a “capitalists’ club”. Indeed, Remainer Corbyn’s opposition to the EU dates back to the 1975 referendum when, as a councillor in Haringey, he voted No to joining the EEC.
As was ever the case with the former chairman of the Stop the War coalition, he was very much in the minority, with Britain voting 67 to 33 to stay in. During the party’s time in power, he voted against the Labour whip 428 times – at least 14 times over the EU.
He voted against Maastricht in 1993, accusing it of “taking power from national parliaments” and handing it to “unelected bankers”. Fearful of “endangering the cause of socialism”, Corbyn appeared aware, even then, that Leftist pledges such as nationalising the railways would be thwarted by Brussels.
He argued that “any social policies relating to housing, unemployment and the environment are bound to take second place” in the EU. He even expressed concern about the EU’S immigration policy, pointing out: “It is perfectly possible for EC member states to decide, for example, that visa requirements should be introduced for visitors from the Caribbean.”
The Irish question also troubled him, although that was more about neutrality and nothing to do with the border. His view of the customs union at the time was positively Reesmoggian: “It is morally wrong that the US and the EU pay farmers to overproduce,” he railed. “The practice is simply crazy and must be stopped”.
It was no surprise that he voted against the Lisbon Treaty in 2008 and two years later against creating the EU’S diplomatic service. Naturally he broke the Labour whip to vote for a referendum on Britain’s membership of the EU in 2011. Commentators noted how Corbyn aligned himself with hardcore Eurosceptics throughout his backbench career, including rightwingers Bill Cash, John Redwood, Peter Bone and even Douglas Carswell.
No surprise, then, that he was largely absent during the 2016 referendum campaign, choosing to go on holiday. When he did contribute to debate he showed little faith in the EU, calling it “brutal” in its treatment of Greece and claiming that it would turn “its smaller nations into colonies of debt”.
In the end it was Corbyn’s ally Tariq Ali who confronted the elephant in the room, saying that if Corbyn were not Labour leader, he would be campaigning for Leave. After the referendum he wasted no time in calling for all ties with Brussels to be severed and the immediate triggering of Article 50 – quicker even than Theresa May.
Having voted to leave the EU more times than virtually any other MP in memory, man of the people Corbyn clearly still regards a second referendum as one too many.
‘Tariq Ali confronted the elephant in the room, saying that if Corbyn were not leader, he would vote Leave’