Corbyn told to return legal-fund donations from abusive patrons

JEREMY CORBYN has been urged to return money from a £170,000 crowdfunding campaign after a number of his donors denounced Sir Keir Starmer as a “sewer dweller” and claimed antisemitism had been used as a “political weapon” against the former leader.

Mr Corbyn, who faces being sued by BBC journalist John Ware, has received a flood of donations from Leftwing activists through an online crowdfunding page named “Jeremy’s Legal Fund”.

Mr Corbyn on Wednesday criticised Labour’s decision to pay “substantial damages” to Mr Ware and anti-semitism whistleblowers who appeared on BBC’S Panorama. In a statement, he claimed the decision had been a “political [rather than] legal one” and risked “giving credibility to misleading and inaccurate allegations”.

Mr Ware has now instructed Mark Lewis, the libel lawyer, to pursue claims against Mr Corbyn, while a number of the whistleblowers are also said to be considering their options.

On Thursday, Mr Corbyn’s North Islington Labour branch confirmed he was aware of the fund, saying that “Jeremy and his team are now in touch” with the organiser.

However, he was last night under pressure to reject donations from supporters found to have posted offensive comments on gofundme.com.

They include a £20 donation from a “Jack T”, who said Mr Corbyn was “targeted for political destruction by people within the Labour Party working on behalf of the racist state of Israel”. A £10 donor, Barry Hodges, said: “It’s time to stand up against false anti-semitism used as a political weapon to silence valid criticism of the way Israel abuse Palestinians.”

Mark Russell, who also gave £10, said Mr Ware and Sir Keir were “sewer dwellers”. Others described Mr Corbyn’s critics as “animals”, “crooks” and “fascist scum”, and said he had been “crucified [for trying to] build a more compassionate society”.

Ian Austin, a former Labour MP who now leads the anti-extremism group Mainstream, said: “Under Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership the Labour Party was poisoned with anti-jewish racism.

“If Corbyn really wants to take a stand against racism he should go through this list of donations and hand back cash from anyone who has posted anti-semitic views.”