Now crisis-hit Corbyn faces grilling by MPs on Labour anti-Semitism

JEREMY Corbyn will be hauled before MPs today to defend Labour against charges of anti-Semitism as the party’s leadership crisis continues.

Last week he was accused of equating Israel with Islamic State and of standing by at an event when Jewish MP Ruth Smeeth left crying after being abused by one of his far-Left supporters in the group Momentum.

The appearance comes as Labour faces another day of chaos, with the Mr Corbyn doggedly refusing to resign, and no challenger having yet come forward to stand against him.

However, last night union leaders claimed they were hopeful of brokering a deal to avoid civil war in the party.

Len McCluskey, the general secretary of the Unite union, offered to mediate between the leadership and MPs, who want Mr Corbyn out. Former leader Lord Kinnock warned the Tories would be in power for ‘decades’ unless Mr Corbyn is ditched – and insisted party rules mean he must quit. But Mr McCluskey, one of Mr Corbyn’s most prominent supporters, hit back – saying it was ‘outrageous’ that grandees were ‘being dragged out to be part of this unedifying coup’.

He told the BBC that the coup had failed, and said the Labour leader had been the victim of a ‘political lynching’. In a bizarre intervention, shadow foreign secretary Emily Thornberry urged plotters to listen to the Queen, who at the weekend urged politicians to allow ‘room for quiet thinking and contemplation’.

Miss Thornberry said: ‘I agree with the Queen. Now is the time for politicians to cool down, to unite and to think of the good of our nation and that’s what we should be doing. She has a lot of experience, she’s led this country for more than 60 years, she’s seen many crises. She’s right.’ Mr Corbyn faces another tough day today, with an appearance in front of the Commons home affairs select committee, which is investigating anti-Semitism.

He will also have to answer questions about his failure to condemn comments by Ken Livingstone, who claimed Hitler was a Zionist.

Angela Eagle and Owen Smith, shadow cabinet members who resigned last week, are weighing up launching a challenge to Mr Corbyn, although no move is expected today.

Yesterday Lord Kinnock, who led Labour between 1983 and 1992 but lost two elections, said support for Mr Corbyn outside Westminster is seeping away and there is ‘no basis’ on which he can stay in his post.

He told the Andrew Marr Show that Mr Corbyn could not stand in a future leadership contest without the nominations of at least 51 MPs and MEPs. And this looks unlikely because only 40 MPs voted last week to say they had confidence in him.