Condemned by his own MPs
One by one, the rebels lined up to denounce Corbyn’s leadership
The seven MPs who quit the Labour Party lined up yesterday to deliver a devastating verdict on Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership.
One by one, they set out an extraordinary charge sheet against Mr Corbyn’s stewardship, accusing him of turning Labour into an ‘institutionally anti- Semitic’ and ‘racist’ party.
Luciana Berger, a Jewish MP threatened with deselection by hard-Left activists, said she was ‘embarrassed and ashamed’ to remain in a party riven with ‘bullying, bigotry and intimidation’.
At the launch of their ‘Independent Group’, the MPs tore into Labour’s leadership, warning that the party had been ‘hijacked’.
Mike Gapes, a Labour MP for 27 years, said he was ‘sickened’ that the party he joined was now ‘racist’. Others blamed their decision to quit on the party’s failure to oppose Brexit and support a second referendum.
Chris Leslie, former shadow chancellor, said he had left because Labour had been ‘hijacked by the machine politics of the hard Left’.
At a meeting of the Parliamentary Labour Party last night, the seven departing MPs received an ovation in recognition of their service to the party.
Labour chairman Ian Lavery – a close ally of Mr Corbyn – faced a frosty reception when he rejected Miss Berger’s suggestion the party was ‘ institutionally anti-Semtitic’.
Jewish Labour MP Ruth Smeeth broke down in tears as she accused the leadership of not doing enough to tackle the problem. Louise ellman, another Jewish MP, was applauded when she said that unless Labour changes ‘we are not fit to govern’.
Tom Watson, Labour’s deputy leader, said Miss Berger’s departure proved the party had been too slow to admit it had a problem with racial hatred of Jews.
Miss Berger and the six other members of the Independent Group quit just days after she was threatened with a vote of no confidence by her local party.
The Liverpool Wavertree MP has been bombarded with antiSemitic abuse since Mr Corbyn became leader three years ago, and at last year’s Labour conference needed police protection.
Yet yesterday she revealed that, despite this, she had not heard from the leader since the end of 2017. Opening the new group’s launch event, she said: ‘The leadership has wilfully and repeatedly failed to address hatred against Jewish people within its ranks.’
Mr Gapes, a former chairman of the Commons foreign affairs committee, said: ‘I am sickened that the Labour Party is now a racist, anti-Semitic party. I am furious that the Labour leadership is complicit in facilitating Brexit, which will cause great economic, social and political damage to our country. Jeremy Corbyn and those around him are on the wrong side on so many international issues – from Russia, to Syria, to Venezuela.
‘A Corbyn government would threaten our national security and international alliances.’
Ann Coffey said: ‘Anti-Semitism is rife and tolerated’, while Mr Shuker said: ‘Labour is riddled with anti-Semitism, it presents a threat to our national security and it’s perfectly content to enable the hard Tory Brexit.’
The president of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, Mari van der Zyl, said: ‘This is a moment of great shame for the Labour Party and a tragedy for the thousands of Jews who have supported the party for generations.’
Labour MP Jess Phillips claimed Miss Berger was essentially constructively dismissed because of the bullying she had suffered.
‘hardest thing to hear today was from Luciana who I love,’ she said. her colleague Lucy Powell said: ‘ My friend Luciana … has been subject to despicable and appalling abuse.’
Mr Watson said Miss Berger was the ‘first casualty’ of a ‘virulent form of identity politics which has seized the Labour Party’ and suggested many other MPs will ‘be asking themselves how they can stay’.
LUCIANA BERGER I have become embarrassed and ashamed to remain in the Labour Party ... I cannot remain in a party that I have come to the sickening conclusion is institutionally anti-Semitic
ANN COFFEY
Any criticism of the leadership is responded to with abuse and accusations of treachery. Anti-Semitism is rife and tolerated
CHRIS LESLIE
[Corbyn prefers] to believe states hostile to our country rather than … our security services. [This is] rooted in the leadership’s obsession with a narrow, outdated ideology
MIKE GAPES
I am furious that the Labour leadership is complicit in facilitating Brexit, which will cause great economic, social and political damage to our country
ANGELA SMITH
Most people are like my family. They do not want to be patronised by Left-wing intellectuals who think that being poor and working-class is a state of grace
CHUKA UMUNNA
In [the] light of these past three years, I do not support the Labour leader taking the office of prime minister. Nor do I have confidence in him and his team to ... safeguard our national security
GAVIN SHUKER
Labour is riddled with anti-Semitism, it presents a threat to our national security and it’s perfectly content to enable the hard Tory Brexit