Countdown Rachel leads sigh of relief from Jewish community
COUNTDOWN host Rachel Riley was joined by other members of the Jewish community last night as they shared their relief at Jeremy Corbyn’s poll humiliation.
Earlier in the day Jewish voters described how they felt ‘anxious’ and ‘worried’ after a campaign dominated by the Labour leader’s failure to crack down on anti-Semitism in his party.
But last night they expressed their sheer relief that the electorate had dismissed Mr Corbyn’s brand of anti-Israel extremism.
Miss Riley, who has faced a barrage of anti-Semitism from Labour supporters, simply tweeted: ‘Love you Britain.’
Last month the presenter was seen wearing a T-shirt saying: ‘Jeremy Corbyn is a racist endeavour.’
Stephen Pollard, editor of the Jewish Chronicle, said last night: ‘ The relief among the Jewish community is palpable. And the gratitude. Now it seems like the British people have told the Corbynites where to go, I realise that the worst thing they did was make Jews so nervous that we even doubted our fellow Brits.
‘They don’t like extremists and never have. It was awful we should ever have felt need to doubt that.’
Former EastEnders actress Tracy-Ann Oberman tweeted: ‘Thank you Great Britain. I’m crying my eyes out.’
During the campaign the Chief Rabbi made an explosive intervention, saying Mr Corbyn had allowed the ‘poison’ of antiSemitism to infect Labour. And in an excruciating
TV interview, the Labour leader repeatedly refused to apologise to the Jewish community for his party’s failings.
At Mr Corbyn’s final rally on Wednesday, supporters chanted: ‘From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free’ – apparently a call for Israel to cease to exist.
And Jewish actress Maureen Lipman faced online abuse after she wrote in yesterday’s Mail that a Corbyn premiership would be a ‘stain’ on Britain.
Miss Lipman, the veteran actress who is now starring in Coronation Street, had written: ‘Five years of a Corbyn government... would be a stain on all of us.
‘If history shows us anything, it’s that we’ll survive this upstart Islington wuss. But if we are to do so, today is the time for everyone – Jewish or not – to stand up.’