YOU WERE ALL SILENT OVER ANTI-SEMITISM Jess Phillips claims rivals ‘kept out of fight’ at first Labour leader hustings
‘Folly of Brexit denier Starmer’
LABOUR leadership hopeful Jess Phillips yesterday accused other candidates of not standing up against antiSemitism.
She rounded on Sir Keir Starmer, Rebecca Long-Bailey, Lisa Nandy and Emily Thornberry and said some had been silent on the issue.
The Birmingham Yardley MP added: “As somebody who was in the room, struggling for an independent system, I have to say I don’t remember some of the people here being in that particular room or being in those particular fights.”
The five were in Liverpool taking part in the first party hustings to set out their stall for taking over from Jeremy Corbyn on April 4.
Ms Phillips said: “Labour needs a leader who has spoken out against anti-Semitism.
“Jewish people were scared of Labour winning the election. That’s deeply serious.
“The Labour Party has now lost the credibility to handle its own complaints system. We have lost the moral high ground to fight racism.”
Shadow Foreign Secretary Emily Thornberry hit back: “It is unacceptable. It undermines us as a party. What the Israeli government is doing at the moment is completely unacceptable. But that is not the fault of the Jews.”
Shadow Brexit Secretary Sir Keir said: “I have spoken out.”
He said he would demand a weekly report showing how the problem is being dealt with if he becomes leader.
Lisa Nandy said: “The failure of leadership at the top of this party has let us down.”
And shadow Business Secretary Ms Long-Bailey added: “We weren’t dealing with the issue effectively. We weren’t responding to complaints quickly enough.”
JON Trickett has accused Labour leadership frontrunner Sir Keir Starmer of being a “Brexit denier” and warned that the party must wake up to the reality of our EU departure.
The Shadow Cabinet Secretary said trying to stop Brexit was a factor in Labour’s election drubbing. He said: “Some colleagues simply ignored our warnings... and look what happened.” Careful not to name Mr Starmer directly, Mr Trickett – who backs Rebecca Long-Bailey – marked the Shadow Brexit Secretary clearly in a swipe at his leadership bid.
He said: “Some people in the party are saying the Brexit debate is over. I am not sure that is
entirely the case.”