Jewish Labour group: Corbyn unfit to be PM
No-confidence vote after yet more claims of anti-Semitism
JEWISH Labour activists yesterday passed a motion of no confidence in Jeremy Corbyn over the party’s handling of antiSemitism complaints.
The motion, which said he was ‘unfit’ to be a future prime minister, was ‘almost unanimously’ approved at the annual general meeting of the Jewish Labour Movement (JLM).
The event took place after Labour again found itself embroiled in a row over its handling of anti-Semitism complaints.
Leaked internal documents showed the party’s system for dealing with complaints had been beset by delays, inaction and interference from the leader’s office, it was reported.
The JLM said its meeting at a North London synagogue featured ‘strong speeches’ from Labour MPs Dame Margaret Hodge, Ruth Smeeth and Louise Ellman.
Mrs Ellman said the no- confidence vote reflected ‘deep anger about the Labour Party’s failure to address anti- Semitism’. She added: ‘We need an independent system for dealing with complaints, outside the party. There’s overwhelming evidence that the current system doesn’t work. There’s no confidence in the system.’
Speaking before the event, JLM national secretary Peter Mason said Jewish members of Labour were ‘looking on in horror’ at what was happening in the party.
The motion of no confidence was passed despite a plea from Baroness Chakrabarti, who led a review into anti-Semitism allegations in the party, not to ‘personalise’ the issue by focusing on Mr Corbyn.
The Shadow Attorney General told Sky News’s Sophy Ridge On Sunday: ‘My plea to the Jewish Labour Movement is to stay in the Labour movement and to tackle racism together, not to personalise it and make it about Jeremy Corbyn, because he is one person and he won’t be leader forever.’
It came as the leaked documents showed that some Labour members investigated for posting comments online such as ‘Heil Hitler’ and ‘Jews are the problem’ had not been expelled despite complaints being made a year ago, The Sunday Times reported.
A hard drive of emails and a confidential database last updated on March 8 showed that a Labour official ruled that a council candidate accused of describing Jewish MPs as ‘Zionist infiltrators’ met the threshold for suspension, but then ruled he should not be suspended because he ‘is a candidate’.
Mr Corbyn’s office was involved in approving, delaying or blocking at least 101 complaints, the paper claimed. It reported that 454 of 863 complaints were unresolved, including 249 where the party had not started an investigation.
Of 409 cases where a decision was reached, 191 members faced no further action, 145 received a formal warning and fewer than 30 were expelled. The rest left the party of their own accord.
Ruth Smeeth, Labour MP for Stoke- on-Trent North, was the subject of an anti-Semitic email leaked to The Sunday Times.
She told Channel 4 News last night that she had texted Mr Corbyn over the new documents last night but had received ‘no reply’.
She said: ‘My mother had to read that this morning. This is not what any of us should be experiencing.
‘We all have families, we have friends who have had to read vile slurs against us. But here’s my message to all of them: we’re not going anywhere. We’re staying and we’re fighting.’
Marie van der Zyl, president of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, said: ‘Our demands to root out anti- Jewish racism have been treated with utter contempt.’
But Labour said the figures quoted in the story were ‘not accurate’. A spokesman said: ‘Lines have been selectively leaked from emails to misrepresent their overall contents.’
‘The Labour Party takes all complaints of anti-Semitism extremely seriously and we are committed to rooting it out of our party. All complaints about anti-Semitism are fully investigated in line with our rules and procedures. We can’t comment on individual cases.’
‘Treated with utter contempt’