Incredulity as Corbyn says sorry to Jews but adds: I’ve dealt with this

Jeremy Corbyn finally offered an apology for his party’s anti-Semitism problem yesterday – but then claimed he had ‘dealt with’ the issue. The Labour leader was condemned last week when he refused to say sorry for the issue four times during a car-crash interview with the BBC’s Andrew Neil. yesterday, he was asked again to apologise to the Jewish community during an interview with ITV’s This morning. eventually he told host Phillip Schofield: ‘Obviously I’m very sorry for everything that’s happened but I want to make this clear I am dealing with it. I have dealt with it.’ Last night, marie van der Zyl, Board of Deputies of British Jews president, hit back: ‘mr Corbyn has not dealt with it in the past few years; whether he will deal with it now remains to be seen.’ Asked if he would apologise on This morning, mr Corbyn initially twice tried to speak about ways he has tried to improve the way incidents are dealt with, before he was interrupted by mr Schofield, who said: ‘No, just say sorry.’ It follows intense criticism from Chief rabbi ephraim mirvis, who said the ‘poison’ of antiSemitism had been ‘sanctioned from the top’ of the Labour Party. mr Corbyn said he had not been contacted directly by rabbi mirvis but he would be happy to talk with him. mr Corbyn has previously apologised for the hurt caused to the Jewish community in a social media video released in the summer of 2018. He also suggested in the ITV interview that he would want to stay on as Labour leader – even if he fails to take his party to victory in the General election. Asked whether he would stay in the post right until the very end of the next parliamentary term – even if he fails to win a majority – he said: ‘I hope so, yes, because I feel I’m fit, I feel I’m quite young enough to do the job... and I’m very determined to carry out what we’ve got there.’