POLICE PROBE LABOUR HATE CRIME ‘COVER-UP’
LABOUR hit “an appalling new low” yesterday after being accused of covering up alleged anti-Semitic hate crimes.
Jeremy Corbyn’s party finally agreed last night to adopt an international definition of anti-Semitism following months of controversy.
But hours earlier officials were accused of “shielding race hate criminals” after failing to tell police directly about vile messages being probed internally by Labour’s Disciplinary Disputes Panel.
London’s Metropolitan Police will now investigate 21 out of 45 cases of alleged anti-Semitism among party members after being handed a leaked dossier by broadcaster LBC. Sick messages included references to
the gas chambers used to kill millions of Jews during the Holocaust and one which described Jewish people as “a cancer on us all”.
Mak Chishty, former head of hate crime investigations at Scotland Yard, reviewed the dossier and said 17 cases warranted a further investigation as a race-hate incident.
Another four warranted a criminal investigation as a hate crime.
He said: “There is a very small selection which I think are at the more severe level.
“On face value, very abhorrent – the language in there is absolutely horrible.
“It is highly offensive language used against a certain race about their faith and I think that is what we should be stamping out.”
One activist suggested inviting two MPs to a charity abseiling event so rivals could “throw them off the top – no ropes”.
Jewish people were branded “devils” and one activist said the Red Sea would be an “ideal destination” for them.
One person called for a Jewish MP to “get a good kicking”.
And another party member described the prison sentence of a former Nazi SS guard at the notorious Auschwitz death camp as “a disgusting travesty of justice”.
The latest controversy prompted outrage from critics, who condemned far-Left leader Mr Corbyn’s handling of the crisis and insisted the party should refer anti-Semitic complaints to the police.
Gideon Falter, the chairman of Campaign Against Antisemitism, said: “It seems that the Labour Party had information about criminal anti-Semitic acts committed by its members, including admissions, that they decided to cover up.
“This is an appalling new low for the Labour Party which now appears to be shielding race hate criminals. The police investigation needs to look into whether the Labour Party committed criminal acts of conspiracy.”
Simon Johnson, who is chief executive of the Jewish Leadership Council, said: “If so many of these cases are serious enough to be referred to the police and yet Labour is dragging their heels in dealing with them, that clearly contributes to the complete lack of confidence that the Jewish community has in the way that Labour is dealing with these at the moment.
“If Jeremy Corbyn was a competent leader of the Labour Party, he would have already dealt with these cases of anti-Semitism months ago.
“He would have rid this party of the stain that now affects them.”
Labour sources admitted the party does not report complaints to the police but advises victims to do so.
They told the Daily Express many of the complaints in the leaked dossier were being investigated by the party’s disciplinary committee.
Labour’s Luciana Berger, a Jewish MP who has told how she receives abuse over the phone, retweeted calls for the party to refer the complaints to police.
But Adam Langleben, a former councillor who sent screenshots of anti-Semitic abuse written by Labour members to the party, said on Twitter: “A barrister and former head of hate crime for the Met Police say that a number meet the threshold for prosecution under hate crime laws.
“Why is Labour not referring these cases to the police?”
Met Police Commissioner Cressida Dick, speaking to broadcaster Nick Ferrari on LBC, confirmed the leaked dossier would be investigated by specialist hate crime officers. She said: “We take hate crime very seriously. If somebody makes an allegation to us, absolutely we will take it seriously, we will scope it, we will see if a crime has taken place. “First instance, does it look like a crime, which is perhaps what Mak has done. I will pass this to my experts to deal with.
“We’ll see if a crime has been committed.”
Labour’s ruling National Executive Committee yesterday met to discuss endorsing the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s guidelines on anti-Semitism. But the insertion of a caveat by the NEC to allow criticism of Israel provoked fury.
Jennifer Gerber, director of Labour Friends of Israel, said: “Labour appears determined to provide a safe space for anti-Semites. This decision is a sad reflection on Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership of the party and the culture it has instilled.”
Senior backbencher John Mann earlier warned that British Jews are leaving the country amid the row.
He said: “That is where we have got to, and it is a lack of leadership at the top of the Labour Party, not just, but including Jeremy Corbyn, and this appalling national executive who have... tried to mess around with a very humdrum, mundane definition of anti-Semitism that left (wing) parties across the world have
been happy to accept along with everyone else. We are now seeing the first British Jewish people leaving – that is the state we are in, that is the responsibility of the Labour Party.
“It’s not a small problem, it’s a big problem and it needs sorting.” Professor David Feldman, an academic who helped steer the party’s official anti-Semitism inquiry two years ago, said “parts of the leadership have had great difficulty in recognising anti-Semitism even when it’s in front of them”.
He added: “The question is whether adopting IHRA definition is going to be enough. It looks as if the party is going to adopt it.
“But whether the definition is able to do everything that the Jewish leadership and its supporters in the Labour Party hope it will be able to do is a different question. What is more important is for the party to build on the IHRA definition to engage in a programme of education so that members are better able to recognise anti-Semitism.”
A Labour spokesperson said: “The Labour Party has a robust system for investigating complaints of alleged breaches of rules by its members.
“Where someone feels they have been a victim of crime they should report it to the police.”