Jewish members reduced to tears as Abbott’s local Labour party BACKS suspended MP

DIANE Abbott reportedly watched Jewish Labour members weep as her constituents denied the party has a problem with anti-Semitism.

Amid a grassroots protest over Chris Williamson’s suspension, the shadow home secretary’s North London branch passed a motion rejecting the claim that Labour is ‘institutionally anti-Semitic’.

The seat of Hackney North and Stoke Newington, which is home to the country’s largest ultra-orthodox Jewish community, voted 45 to 35 in favour of the motion. Miss Abbott did not speak out against it.

At least four other constituency parties have already passed similar motions in the wake of Mr Williamson’s suspension.

They include Harriet Harman’s constituents in Camberwell and Peckham, even though Miss Harman had personally called for Mr Williamson to be censured.

Her local Labour activists urged the party to reinstate him as an MP, saying: ‘It is the anti-Corbyn media that should be investigated by Labour, not lifelong anti-racist and socialist Chris Williamson.’ The MP, a close ally of Jeremy Corbyn, had the whip withdrawn on Wednesday after he was filmed claiming Labour had been ‘too apologetic’ over anti-Semitism. He was suspended only after a revolt by 38 moderate Labour MPs – including Miss Harman. In Sheffield Hallam, where Mr Williamson made his controversial speech, activists opposed his suspension by a vote of 40 to 1. The South London Labour branch, which Chuka Umunna left to help form the Independent Group, also passed a motion describing claims of institutional anti-Semitism as ‘slander’.

Jewish MP Luciana Berger, another Independent Group member, said: ‘The fact we are now seeing these motions popping up across the country is more evidence of the culture of the party, which allows antiSemitism to find a home.’

A source who attended the meeting in Miss Abbott’s seat on Thursday night told the Jewish Chronicle: ‘There were a lot of people in tears. Some said they wouldn’t be coming back.’ Rabbi Avrohom Pinter, a long-time Labour member, said he was ‘shocked’ by Miss Abbott’s failure to intervene, adding that he ‘no longer feels welcome’ at Labour meetings. ‘The atmosphere is absolutely toxic these days,’ he said.

Miss Abbott failed to respond to requests for comment.