McDonnell’s ‘anti-Semitic’ ally must go, demand MPs

LABOUR will have ‘no future’ if it does not expel a hard-Left ally of John McDonnell over alleged anti-Semitism next week, MPs have warned.

The shadow chancellor defended Jackie Walker last month, even though she has been suspended twice for making comments offensive to Jewish people.

He pledged to take up her case with Jeremy Corbyn and party general secretary Jennie Formby – in an apparent contravention of Labour’s claim that the leadership is not involved in disciplinary cases.

Miss Walker was suspended in 2016 and then let back into the party despite claiming that Jews were chief financiers of the slave trade. She was suspended a second time later that year for questioning the need for security at Jewish schools and saying that Holocaust Memorial Day was too limited in scope. She was also removed from her position as vice- chairman of Momentum.

Her case will finally come before Labour’s disciplinary panel on Tuesday after twoand-a-half years of delay. Backbenchers

‘Why is she still in the party?’

said the party must ensure she is expelled – if Labour is to have any chance of proving it is not institutionally anti-Semitic.

Dame Margaret Hodge said: ‘It’s extraordinary that it has taken so long to bring her to an expulsion hearing.

‘Tough action must be taken but one expulsion will not solve a far deeper cultural problem that has infected the party.’

Ian Austin, who resigned from Labour last month to sit as an independent, added: ‘Why is Jackie Walker still in the Labour Party after all this time? They’ve got to start booting these people out.’

Euan Phillips, from the group Labour Against Anti-Semitism, said: ‘If Ms Walker is expelled, as she should be, we can expect an explosion of outrage across the Labour membership – itself an indication of how ingrained anti-Semitism has become.’

Mr McDonnell is a longstanding friend of Miss Walker, and both sit on the hard-Left Labour Representation Committee.

Last month he was recorded saying he would ‘take up’ her case with the leadership, although it is thought he never did so. A Labour spokesman said: ‘We can’t comment on individual cases.’