Labour toxicity forces me to identify as Jewish: Peston
V JOURNALIST ROBERT Peston has said the issue of Labour antisemitism has become so “toxic” he feels he has to identify himself as Jewish when reporting on it.
“In the current febrile political climate, it matters — and I say this with regret — that I am Jewish,” he said as he gave the annual Cudlipp Lecture on Friday, referring to the “toxic question of antisemitism in the Labour Party”.
He said Jeremy Corbyn’s communications chief Seamus Milne had cited his interview with the Chief Rabbi — who had made a rare public intervention to condemn Labour’s Jew-hate — as a reason to bar ITV News from interviewing the Labour leader.
Mr Peston added: “I feel I have to say [that I am Jewish] — because although I strive to be as impartial in covering this issue as I would a general election or reporting on a corporate takeover, I cannot shed my Jewish identity in the way that I can cease to be a member of a political party or can dispose of shares in a company.”
Mr Peston, who describes himself as secular, was business editor and economics editor at the BBC from 2006-2015.
“There is an argument that because antisemitism is a personal issue for me, I should not report on it,” he said.
Mr Peston added that when he asked Mr Milne during last year’s general election campaign why Mr Corbyn had refused to be interviewed, Mr Milne texted to say his reporting had “not been remotely fair or balanced and included a high degree of slanted editorialising”.
Mr Peston said Mr Milne had been referring to his report on Chief Rabbi Mirvis on November 26 in the wake of the latter’s decision to publicly question whether Mr Corbyn was fit for office.
“I reviewed that two-way,” Mr Peston said. “It was impartial”.
In the report, which was broadcast on ITV’s nightly news bulletin, Mr Peston said it was “shocking” that Chief Rabbi Mirvis had felt “obliged” to speak out and that he was “moved to do so by the deep hurt and fear felt by many of his congregation”.
“This … could not be ignored, which is why I was surprised — to put it mildly — that Milne cited it when disqualifying me as a suitable interviewer of his boss,” Mr Peston said.