Senior US Democrat wades into Labour’s anti-semitism row
JEREMY CORBYN is facing further pressure over his handling of antisemitism after the most senior Democrat in the US said Labour must stand “unequivocally” against it, following a meeting with three MPS who have defected from the party.
Mike Gapes, Chris Leslie and Ian Austin, who all quit the Labour Party, yesterday met Nancy Pelosi, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, at her invitation at a hotel in London to discuss their concerns about the party.
Mrs Pelosi met the three MPS along with half a dozen other members of Congress before meeting Jeremy Corbyn, the Labour leader.
After the meeting she said on Twitter: “Important discussion with former Labour Party MPS Mike Gapes, Chris Leslie and Ian Austin to hear their perspective on Brexit, why they left the Labour Party and the importance of standing unequivocally against antisemitism wherever it is found.”
Mr Leslie said that the MPS told Mrs Pelosi that Labour is “up to its neck” in anti-semitism. He told The Daily Telegraph: “She was open to listening to why those of us who had been in the Labour Party for decades had sadly come to the view that it had changed fundamentally. It is up to its neck in anti-semitism. I was very clear to make the point that this was all rooted in the world view of the hard-left.”
It comes after a leaked recording of a private meeting between Mr Corbyn and Dame Margaret Hodge, a Jewish Labour MP, revealed he had admitted that evidence of anti-semitism in Labour has been “mislaid, ignored or not used”. The recording, which was obtained by The Sunday Times, was made in February when Mr Corbyn was outlining his intention to recruit Lord Falconer, the Labour peer, to review the party’s complaints.
Lord Falconer’s review was put on hold after the Equality and Human Rights Commission began its own investigation into allegations that the Labour Party is anti-semitic.
The peer yesterday suggested that the party now needs to implement its own independent review because antisemitism poses an “existential threat” to Labour. He told BBC Radio 4’s The World This Weekend: “It [the equality watchdog’s investigation] will be too
‘People are using the antisemitism issue as a big stick to get rid of him. I have never heard anything like this’
long for us to take effective measures now against the threat of anti-semitism.
“We as a party need to come together to say we are all opposed to anti-semitism, we need the most vigorous measures possible to deal with it. If we don’t it will be an existential threat to the Labour Party.”
His remarks came as Ronnie Campbell, a Labour MP and ally of Mr Corbyn, said anti-semitism was being used to get rid of Mr Corbyn”. He said: “People are using the anti-semitism issue as a big stick to beat Corbyn and get rid of him. I have been in the Labour Party for more than 50 years. I have never heard anything like this. We are a tolerant party and always have been.”