PANICKING CORBYN AXES HIS FACEBOOK ACCOUNT

Drastic action as 12 top staff are exposed as part of anti-Semitic groups – and 17,000 quit party

JEREMY Corbyn deleted his personal Facebook account last night amid rising panic over revelations about his links to anti-semitic groups.

Labour described the move as a ‘tidying up exercise’ but critics accused him of trying to head off further ‘toxic’ disclosures as the issue tears the party apart.

Over the past week it has emerged that Mr Corbyn was a member of five Facebook groups that hosted anti-semitic posts, including Holocaust denial, descriptions of Jews as ‘demons’ and false claims that Israel harvested the organs of Palestinian children.

anti-semitism campaigner David Collier, who first exposed Mr Corbyn’s membership of the secret Facebook group Palestine Live, said: ‘This is someone who wants to be prime minister admitting that his own account is too toxic – that there are too many still hidden skeletons – for it to remain public. It is shocking.’

Labour MP Louise Ellman, former chairman of the Jewish Labour Movement, called on her party leader to ‘make full disclosure of any dubious past Facebook associations’. The extraordinary development came as: It emerged that 12 senior staff working for the Labour leader and the shadow chancellor John McDonnell are members of pro-Corbyn Facebook groups carrying violent and antisemitic content.

Labour’s stance in disputes over antisemitism and Russia have seen more than 17,000 members leave the party in the past three months, The Times reported last night.

Comedian Eddie Izzard faced abuse on social media as he pledged to use his new position on Labour’s ruling national executive committee (NEC) to ‘ stamp out completely the stain of anti-semitism’ in the party.

Mr Corbyn’s ally Christine shawcroft finally resigned from the NEC after claiming that the anti-semitism row was being ‘stirred up’ to undermine him.

Labour donor sir David Garrard revealed he was quitting the party, saying its leadership had ‘supported and endorsed the most blatant acts of anti-semitisim’.

Leading lawyer Lord Carlile said some proCorbyn activists could be guilty of hate crimes and urged the police to investigate.

an investigation by The sunday Times into 20 of the biggest pro-Corbyn Facebook groups uncovered more than 2,000 antisemitic, racist, violent and misogynistic comments.

Posts included support for adolf Hitler, with one saying the Nazi leader ‘ should have finished the job’ and another describing the deaths of six million Jews in the Holocaust as ‘a big lie’.

The 20 Facebook groups, which have more than 400,000 members, have formed an online army for the Labour leader. The groups’ titles include We support Jeremy Corbyn, the Labour Party Forum, I’m Backing Jeremy Corbyn for Prime Minister and Jeremy Corbyn Leads us to Victory.

at least a dozen senior Labour officials were found to be members of some of the groups. They include John Prescott’s son David, who is a senior adviser to Mr Corbyn, James Meadway, who is Mr McDonnell’s economic adviser, and Laura Murray, Mr Corbyn’s head of ‘stakeholder engagement’.

The Daily Mail can reveal that Marsha-Jane Thompson, described as ‘campaign manager’ in Mr Corbyn’s office, has used the We support Jeremy Corbyn group to promote fundraising efforts.

Miss Murray, daughter of the unite union chief Len McCluskey’s chief-of-staff, ‘liked’ a misogynistic post on one group, which depicted BBC political editor Laura Kuenssberg with her mouth taped shut. The post read: ‘she has been kidnapped by the Conservative Party and is being forced to deliver their propaganda on the BBC.’

a Labour source said such groups routinely received hundreds of postings a day, most of which were innocent messages. The source added that many of the staff concerned were either no longer active on Facebook or were unaware they were members of these groups.

a Labour Party spokesman said: ‘These groups are not run by the Labour Party or officially connected to the party in any way.

‘The Labour Party is committed to challenging and campaigning against anti-semitism.’ Mr Corbyn has made Facebook a key part of his campaigning strategy.

Labour said last night he would maintain a ‘presence’ on the social network via his official page but sources confirmed his personal account, which he has used for years, had been deleted.

a party source said the decision to close the account had been taken ‘some time ago’.

However, it appears to reflect mounting concern about the impact the anti-semitism crisis is having on Labour’s public image. One member of Mr Corbyn’s inner circle is said to have warned him the controversy could ‘destroy the party’ unless he acts decisively.

shadow digital minister Liam Byrne yesterday said Mr Corbyn needed to make good his promise to Jewish leaders to tackle the issue, pointing to the backlog of around 70 cases of anti-semitism that have still to be dealt with. Former Commons speaker Michael Martin yesterday called for a special one-day conference to address the problem. Now sitting on the cross benches in the Lords as Lord Martin of springburn, he told the Guardian that he had decided to speak out because ill health meant he had been unable to attend the anti-semitism protest organised by Jewish leaders outside Parliament last Monday.

Lord Martin added: ‘you recall the saying, “Evil happens when good men do nothing”.’

BY suddenly deleting his Facebook account yesterday, Jeremy Corbyn raised a fascinating – and deeply troubling – question: precisely what else was lurking there that he doesn’t want us to know about?

What we’ve learned already about his dealings with raving anti- Semites is incriminating enough. And this paper has led the way in exposing them.

An investigation by the Mail’s Guy Adams revealed Mr Corbyn’s links to five Facebook groups peddling anti- Jewish smears.

They included the ‘secret’ Palestine Live, where Jews were described as ‘demons’, Israel was accused of harvesting the organs of Arab children and the Holocaust was described as ‘an exaggeration’.

The more we discover, the worse the racist stench grows. It’s now clear the entire Labour leadership is tainted, with no fewer than 12 aides to Mr Corbyn and Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell endorsing these dubious Facebook groups (including two of Mr Corbyn’s sons).

Of course, it’s not just anti-Semitism. There’s also overwhelming evidence that this profoundly nasty party is shot through with violent misogyny and bullying.

And how ironic that a man who constantly says the traditional media is dying, and who vaunts social platforms as the only true communication media of the future, should want to erase his internet history.

What he have to hide?