Stephen Kinnock says Labour in ‘full-blown crisis’
THE furore over alleged antiSemitism within Labour Party is now a “full-blown crisis” for the party, according to Aberavon MP Stephen Kinnock.
The son of former Labour leader Lord Kinnock has called for Labour to take three immediate steps to address the controversy which has escalated since it was reported Jeremy Corbyn hosted an event in 2010 at which a Holocaust survivor compared Israel and Nazism.
Here is what Stephen Kinnock says must happen:
■ Jeremy Corbyn “must confirm that likening Israel to the Nazis is an anti-Semitic act”;
■ Labour’s National Executive Committee (NEC) must adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of anti-Semitism in full; and
■ investigations into MPs Margaret Hodge and Ian Austin “have to be halted”.
Barking MP Ms Hodge, who has described how her grandmother and uncle were “murdered by Hitler”, reportedly swore at Mr Corbyn and called him an “anti-Semite”. Dudley North MP Mr Austin, the adopted son of a Jewish refugee, said he had a “heated discussion” with Labour chairman Ian Lavery but said he did not “scream abuse”.
Pontypridd MP and former leadership candidate Owen Smith – whom Mr Corbyn sacked as Shadow Northern Ireland Secretary – said: “What a desperate illustration of our self-inflicted wounds that the top story on the news this morning is not Labour’s condemnation of 10 years of Tory austerity and the near-collapse of [Northamptonshire County Council], but rather the anti-Semitism swirling around our leader.”