McDonnell pulled into Labour anti-Semitism scandal
Shadow chancellor criticised after hard-Left allies claim Jewish leader is part of smear campaign
JOHN MCDONNELL was dragged into the heart of Labour’s anti-Semitism scandal last night after a hard-Left group he heads claimed that a Jewish leader was a “Trump fanatic” who made up allegations of discrimination against Jews.
The Labour Representation Committee (LRC), a campaign group of which the shadow chancellor is president, highlighted how Jonathan Arkush, the former president of the Board of Deputies, had “welcomed Trump’s election” and “went on to praise Trump’s decision to move the US embassy in Israel to Jerusalem”.
In a statement on its website on Friday, they suggested Mr Arkush was one of a series of Jewish “Trump fanatics making up duff information without any evidence at all.” The LRC also accused The Jewish Chronicle of “hysterical abuse” of Labour and warned of a “systematic campaign” to “smear Corbyn and the entire Labour movement with allegations of anti-Semitism”.
The claims came after Peter Willsman, a member of Labour’s ruling National Executive Committee, was widely condemned after it emerged that he had blamed Jewish “Trump fanatics” for “making up” allegations of anti-Semitism. The LRC, which Mr McDonnell helped found in 2004, described the claim as “factually accurate”, citing Mr Arkush as a prime example.
The Sunday Telegraph can also disclose that in a posting last year, the group claimed that the Labour Friends of Israel, of which 81 MPs are listed as supporters, was a “conduit” for “Israeli spooks ... subverting the Labour Party”.
The group’s claims appear sharply at odds with briefings last week that Mr McDonnell, Mr Corbyn’s closest political ally, was heading a shadow cabinet rebellion over the Labour leader’s handling of the anti-Semitism scandal.
In a television interview on Wednesday Mr McDonnell said the “way this has upset people ... has shaken us to the core”, insisting: “We’ve got to resolve the issue within our party.”
Last night Ian Austin, the former Labour minister, said: “The LRC’s statement is a disgrace. They should be criticising the people responsible for racism, not the people complaining about it. I can’t understand why the organisation’s president John McDonnell hasn’t demanded these disgraceful comments are immediately withdrawn, particularly given the comments he made earlier in the week.”
Mr McDonnell faced earlier calls to resign from the LRC, which supported his past attempts to become Labour leader, after The Telegraph disclosed in June that it was campaigning in support of Labour figures accused of anti-Semitism and verbal abuse of an MP. Last night a Labour spokesman said he “has no day-to-day involvement in the operation of the LRC and is not responsible for its website”.
John Mann, Labour chairman of the all party parliamentary group on antiSemitism, said: “These are exactly the kind of people that Jeremy Corbyn is
now condemning ... No doubt John McDonnell will want to separate himself from their excusing of racism.”
The latest LRC statement said: “Peter Willsman has been targeted for allegedly anti-Semitic comments he made at the last NEC meeting in July... In a debate on anti-Semitism he is reported as saying, ‘Some of these people in the Jewish community support Trump – they are Trump fanatics and all the rest of it... So I am not going to be lectured to by Trump fanatics making up duff information without any evidence at all.’”
Mr Willsman’s comments led to the activist’s removal from the election slate of Momentum, the pro-Corbyn pressure group, which had been supporting nine candidates for election to Labour’s NEC.
Tom Watson, the party’s deputy leader, said Mr Willsman “disgusts me”.
But the LRC said: “This is a factually true statement from Peter. The thenBoard of Deputies president Jonathan Arkush welcomed Trump’s election, saying, ‘I would like to congratulate Donald Trump on his victory’. Arkush went on to praise Trump’s decision to move the US embassy in Israel to Jeru- salem, a hugely provocative and controversial decision.
“He went on, ‘Why is it apparently so controversial that the United States is taking the decision to recognise what we already know, that Jerusalem is the capital of Israel?’”
The group failed to mention that Mr Arkush’s statement also warned that after a “divisive campaign” Mr Trump should “move to build bridges and ensure that America’s standing as a beacon of progress, tolerance and free thinking remains strong”.
Responding to the LRC claims, Mr Arkush, a barrister whose term as Board of Deputies president ended in June, said: “It would be more accurate to call me a Trump critic.” He added: “Before you accuse anyone of making up allegations of anti-Semitism, you might ask the Labour MPs who have been racially abused in their constituency parties and trolled with abhorrent threats ... from Corbyn supporters.”
The LRC statement went on: “Clearly we are confronted with a systematic campaign afoot to smear Corbyn and the entire Labour movement with allegations of anti-Semitism. It is shameful that some Labour MPs are piling in and adding to the pressure.”