Corbyn: Race row won’t hit Labour
JEREMY Corbyn is insisting that Labour’s anti-Semitism crisis has been dealt with and will not cost it seats in local elections this week.
His defiance comes amid reports that 50 members have been suspended over anti-Semitic comments and that Barking MP Margaret Hodge is considering making a leadership challenge.
Mr Corbyn said “the antiSemitism issue is being dealt with” by an independent investigation into racism within Labour led by former Liberty pressure group chief Shami Chakrabarti. Mr Corbyn repeatedly refused to say whether he thought the row, sparked by online comments by Bradford MP Naz Shah, was an attempt to destabilise his leadership.
He said he would carry on as leader amid reports some Labour MPs are ready to mobilise against him.
Mr Corbyn, attending a campaign poster launch in London on Monday, said: “I don’t know who these Labour MPs are but I would advise every party member, including our MPs, (to) get out on the doorstep and campaign, we have two days to go.”
Tomorrow’s elections offer the first national test for Mr Corbyn as critics insist Labour must make gains.
But experts have forecast the party could lose hundreds of seats in England. It is on course for another difficult polling night in Scotland and a tough fight in Wales.
Mr Corbyn’s best hope of a headline-grabbing win lies with Sadiq Khan wresting back the London mayoralty after eight years of Tory Boris Johnson at City Hall. Mr Corbyn said: “We are not going to lose seats, we are looking to gain seats where we can.”
Asked if he would stand in an election if there was a challenge to him, Mr Corbyn told the BBC: “Of course.”
Suspended Labour MP Naz Shah has stood down from the Commons Home Affairs Select Committee after it announced a probe into prejudice against Jewish people in British life.
IS Jeremy Corbyn in denial? Earlier this week he insisted in the face of mounting evidence to the contrary that anti-Semitism is “not a huge problem for Labour” and now he asserts that the “anti-Semitism issue is being dealt with” by the investigation into racism within Labour led by former Liberty chief Shami Chakrabarti.
At a campaign poster launch in central London for the local elections tomorrow he refused to answer repeated questions about whether the row (springing from the appalling behaviour of Labour MP Naz Shah) represented an attempt to destabilise his leadership.
He also declared that Labour will not lose seats in local government as a result of this debacle and in typical wet Corbyn style complained that the media was obsessed with this issue rather than focusing on “the devastating crisis of inequality in our society”.
Sadiq Khan, Labour’s candidate for mayor of London, has urged Jeremy Corbyn to “get a grip”. Many in the party will agree with him. And while this newspaper is more than happy to see Labour in difficulties, nobody wants an important national organisation to be so complacent and ineffective about a matter as serious as anti-Semitism.
Jeremy Corbyn has proved yet again that he is not fit to lead the Opposition.