Phillips accuses rivals of ignoring racism

LABOUR’S leadership race was marred by a new row over the party’s handling of antisemitism as Jess Phillips hit out at some fellow contenders for keeping quiet over the affair.

Mrs Phillips sought to steal a march on rivals by telling the first leadership hustings: ‘The Labour Party needs a leader who has spoken out against antisemitism, and other forms of harassment.

‘When others were keeping quiet and (as) somebody who was in the room, struggling for an independent system… I have to say I don’t remember some of the people here being in that particular room or being in those particular fights.’

A source close to Mrs Phillips, seen as one of the leadership outsiders, said she had been ‘talking honestly’ about her experience and how Labour frontbenchers had not always supported the fight against anti-Jewish prejudice.

But the remarks sparked a sharp riposte from Shadow Foreign Secretary Emily Thornberry at the event in Liverpool. She said: ‘I tell you what Jess, I have always been clear about it and I always will because it’s unacceptable, it

‘It undermines us as a party’

undermines us as a party and undermines our soul.

‘What we should be doing is kicking out these antisemites in the same way Oswald Mosley was kicked out of Liverpool in 1937.’

Ironically, the row broke despite all five leadership candidates admitting party disunity stood in the way of Labour winning a General Election, with frontrunner Sir Keir Starmer saying: ‘We’ve had far too much division.’

It also came as it emerged that a controversial BBC Panorama probe titled Is Labour Antisemitic? – branded biased by the party – has been cleared by broadcasting watchdog Ofcom.

It said: ‘In our view, the programme was duly impartial.

‘As well as highly critical personal testimonies, it included the Labour Party’s response prominently throughout, including in an interview with the Shadow Communities Secretary.’

Labour, which has yet to submit a complaint to Ofcom, rejected the verdict last night, with a source saying: ‘We have not changed our view that the programme lacked balance and was unfair.’

At the hustings, Ms Thornberry sparked surprise by insisting: ‘Being leader of the Labour Party in opposition is, quite frankly, the worst job in the world.

‘That’s what we are applying for. In the end we have to wade through an awful lot of s***.’