Angela Epstein:
Politicians must show collective revulsion to have any hope of really hurting Jeremy Corbyn
Let me tell you about the old days when conversation for Jews gathered round the traditional Friday night dinner table amounted to a congenial, booze-flushed review of the week gone by. Kids OK? Check. Work all good? Check. Gossip about the local great and good? Check, check, check.
But since anti-semitism began its seemingly unstoppable march through the Labour Party, topics to chew over with the roast chicken have taken a far more embittered turn. You staying if Corbyn gets in? Unlikely (we have friends leaving almost every month). Is this really 2018 and not 1933? Yes, sadly. Will this ever stop while Corbyn is Labour leader? No answer necessary. And so it goes on.
So when a glimmer of in-house salvation is offered in the form of Margaret Hodge and Ian Austin speaking out against their leader, we cling to the life raft of the MPS’ brave invective. Could this be a sign that the tide is finally turning?
It would be wonderful if this were the case. Certainly as a Jewish woman whose own family – like many others’ – has experienced anti-semitism, I am grateful for the courage shown by Hodge and Austin. But will other Labour MPS come forward and call it how it is, declaring Corbyn, to paraphrase Margaret Hodge, a “racist and anti-semite”, no matter what abuse they receive in return? For that is what we need: powerful words from within the Labour Party stating unambiguous opposition to this pathetic leader.
True, there have been MPS who have been critical of the way Labour is handling the row. Not least the chairwoman of the Commons home affairs committee, Yvette Cooper, who pointed out that an investigation into Ian Austin is “getting things completely wrong”. (Compare the speed with which it was launched with the party’s sluggish approach to Ken Livingstone and Naz Shah, now shadow equalities minister.) But, to summon HG Wells, such words are bows and arrows against the lightning. They’re not enough.
It’s easy to offer tick-box revolution – as in 2016, when a motion of no confidence was passed in a 172-40 vote of MPS that Corbyn completely ignored. As a man who confounded his critics by winning a Labour leadership contest for the second time in two years, why wouldn’t he, and why wouldn’t he do so again? That is why we need a battle cry from the Labour ranks, to continually embarrass its leadership.
For example, just as many adopt a ribbon or wristband to ally themselves with certain causes, it’s time for Labour MPS who oppose both anti-semitism and their leader to wear some kind of insignia too. After all, so legend goes, when the Nazis ordered the Jews of Denmark to wear the yellow star during the Second World War, the king himself was willing to adopt the armbands as a mark of unequivocal opposition. So why not wear a yellow star today to symbolise communal objection to the leader?
Imagine, if you will, the glare of an anti-corbyn pin constantly glinting from the lapels of Newsnight interviewees and Question Time panellists. Those who refused to wear such a badge would send just as strong a message. Would the likes of Shami Chakrabarti – whose risible report into this issue concluded that Labour did not have a problem with anti-semitism – pin a clasp to the ermine Corbyn gave her after her incisive investigation?
Above all, though, what Labour MPS mustn’t do is quit. It would be a spectacular own goal. Better to risk the discipline of the party by displaying candid revulsion for Corbyn. Quitting would provide default deselection and allow the likes of Momentum to fill the vacuum. The only option is to stay and fight, to cause chaos and dislocation and embarrassment from within, to keep rubbing it in the faces not only of Corbyn but also of wavering fellow MPS and voters that not everyone is comfortable with his indulgence of racism.
It is the willingness of Labour MPS to put Jewish fears aside for some “greater good” that has allowed this situation to develop. It’s time for them to swap lip service for serious politics: to wear their star on their sleeve (or lapel) and to give everyone around our Friday night dinner tables reason to hope.