Labour must make a moral decision

Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour party is under fire once more: this time from Gordon Brown, who, speaking at the Jewish Labour Movement’s annual conference yesterday warned that the “soul” of Labour is at risk because of Mr Corbyn’s handling of the anti-semitism crisis. His criticism follows hot on the heels of Ed Balls, who said on Saturday that Mr Corbyn had “crossed the line” on the issue; David Blunkett, who warned on Friday that the “bullying and thuggery” of the Eighties is back; Frank Field, who resigned the Labour whip over the issue on Thursday; and Tony Blair, who called Mr Corbyn’s handling of the anti-semitism accusations “a truly shameful episode for the Labour party”.

Mr Brown is right. He is also right when he points out that Labour’s problem with antisemitism is not, as Mr Corbyn might fondly imagine, one that is theoretical, or abstract, but one “that is real, and present, and is something that has got to be dealt with now”. As Lord Sacks, the former chief rabbi warned yesterday, Jewish people are now preparing to leave Britain if Mr Corbyn becomes prime minister, because of the “existential threat” he poses.

That Labour has allowed things to get to this point beggars belief. We are now in the extraordinary position where almost every Labour grandee of recent history has condemned the current leader and his hard-left supporters, yet the Labour leadership still refuses to admit there is a problem or that they may be in the wrong. This, lest we forget, from a party that Mr Brown argues has traditionally “been the last line of defence for people facing persecution and discrimination”.

As Margaret Hodge – another Labour stalwart – pointed out yesterday, the real issue lies with Mr Corbyn himself. “The problem is he is the problem,” she said. In his blind refusal to engage fully with the accusations against his party, to properly apologise for its words and actions and to fully commit to rooting out anti-semitic elements, Mr Corbyn has allowed such words and actions to continue unchecked.

Parliament reconvenes tomorrow; on Tuesday Labour’s National Executive Committee meets to decide whether or not to adopt the IHRA definition of anti-semitism and on Wednesday the Parliamentary Labour Party will vote on whether to incorporate the entirety of the definition into its constitution. In this week of reckoning, Labour faces a profound moral choice.