Boris Johnson: danger of a PM Corbyn is ‘very real’

PRIME MINISTER Boris Johnson has warned the Jewish community that the threat posed by a Jeremy Corbynled government is “very real” — and says he is “working flat out” to ensure a decisive majority for the Conservative Party at next week’s general election.

In a wide ranging interview with the JC immediately after addressing world leaders at this week’s Nato summit, Mr Johnson said he found it “utterly horrifying and bewildering” that the Labour leader had claimed he had taken decisive steps to tackle the antisemitism crisis within his party.

“It’s clear that when people like Luciana Berger are obliged to leave the Labour Party, when people like Louise Ellman decided to leave, when I read the words of very good people like John Mann and others, it is clear there is a sickness in the Labour Party under Mr Corbyn’s leadership that been allowed to take hold.”

Mr Johnson insisted that Mr Corbyn’s record was in stark contrast to that of his own party: “We in the Conservative Party have a very tough approach to prejudice of any kind. We kick it out.”

The Tory leader said he was “proud” of his party’s record on tackling antiJewish racism both within the Tory Party itself and within wider society.

Mr Johnson added: “We were the first government in the world to adopt the IHRA working definition of antisemitism. We made my good friend Eric Pickles the global envoy for post-Holocaust issues.

“We are putting money into the National Holocaust Memorial and Leaning Centre, which I think will be a great thing. It is very important to instil in the collective memory the horror of what happened, and to make sure that it never happens again.”

Mr Johnson also emphasised the extra funding for tackling online hatred and said he had been a “big admirer” of the Community Security Trust for “many, many years”.

“We bat for the CST and have done for a long time,” he said, stressing the £65.2 million Jewish Community Protective Security Grant provided by the Tories since its introduction in 2015.

The PM expressed his dismay that such steps were needed to protect British Jewish community from harm in this day and age. “Do you know what I really think about it?”, he asked. “I find it unbelievable that in 2019 you and I are having this conversation — that this really is what has become of Labour.”

Mr Johnson continued: “What has gone wrong is really a failure of leadership. Corbyn has not stamped it out. To me it is utterly horrifying and bewildering that this should have happened.”

Mr Johnson also reflected on wider

It is clear there is a sickness in the Labour Party under Corbyn’