Blair: This has been a truly shameful episode
TONY BLAIR has accused Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour of doing a “terrible thing” by alienating the Jewish community.
The former prime minister told Euronews the antisemitism crisis was a “truly shameful episode” for the party he once led.
And he appeared to blame Mr Corbyn’s “statements” for contributing to the problem and said there was “an element to his leadership” that was at odds with the party’s anti-racist principles.
When asked whether he thought Mr Corbyn was an antisemite, Mr Blair said: “In a sort of classic sense, I don’t think he is.
“But his statements and the way the party have handled this… It really doesn’t matter if I call him that or not.”
He added: “This has been a truly shameful episode for Labour and it’s causing real difficulties for those of us who stay in [the party] and want to see it come back to sense. To see a situation in which the Jewish community in this country feel really alienated and worried and anxious — that’s a terrible thing to have done.” Mr Blair argued that antisemitism was part of “a deeper problem with the politics of Jeremy Corbyn and the people around him” because of their “visceral anti-Western position” and their hostility to Israel.
“If you look at where they make their attacks, where they don’t make their attacks, they will attack people who support the West and they will basically defend people who are anti-West,” he said.
“In a way, their attitudes to Israel got kind of caught up in that bigger and broader argument.”
Mr Blair was asked whether he thought Labour was now racist, to which he replied:
“The party that I know and that I grew up in is definitely not a racist party.”
But he added there was an “element to this leadership” that was “very difficult to reconcile with the proper principles of the Labour Party”.
He went on: “My obvious discomfort when you’re putting questions to me about this is an indication of that.
“Because, on the one hand, I have been a Labour Party member for over 40 years. I was leader for 13 years, the longest-serving Labour prime minister, the only Labour prime minister to have won two consecutive full terms, never mind three.” But, he said:
“I am in a situation where this is my political home. And, you know, at the moment it’s a struggle.”