Getting out of it

It was difficult to see how the Labour Party could find a way to make the Livingstone affair worse. But it has managed to do just that. There appears to be no limit to the party’s ability to demonstrate that its fine words on tackling antisemitism are pure sophistry. As if not concluding its disciplinary process against the former Mayor of London within two years was not bad enough, by engineering his resignation from the party and thus scrapping the disciplinary procedures against him, the Labour leadership have contrived a way for Mr Livingstone to emerge without any finding against him, despite his having spent those two years seizing every conceivable opportunity to utter the words “Hitler” and “Zionist” in the same sentence.

But after letting him leave the Labour Party scot free, Jeremy Corbyn then found a way to ensure that no one should be in any doubt that the refusal to tackle antisemitism stems directly from the top. Instead of condemning Mr Livingstone for his words and behaviour and stressing that Labour would not tolerate antisemitism in its ranks, Mr Corbyn issued a statement paying warm tribute to the former London Mayor. Since the “Enough is Enough” rally in Parliament Square, Mr Corbyn has spoken some fine words about tackling antisemitism. But he and his allies should be judged on their actions. And their actions this week involve concocting a plan so that a man with a career-long history of Jew-baiting can — formally — leave the party without a stain on his membership of it. Can there be anyone left who still thinks that Mr Corbyn is in any way serious about tackling antisemitism within the Labour Party?