Corbyn accused over hate re
Baroness Chakrabarti’s independence was called into question by the committee Comments by NUS president Malia Bouattia “smacked of outright racism”
JEREMY CORBYN has been attacked by his own MPs for his response to a parliamentary report which heavily criticised his handling of Labour’s antisemitism crisis.
The Commons’ Home Affairs Committee, which has been investigating antisemitism in the UK, found that the Labour leader did not fully appreciate “the distinct nature of contemporary antisemitism”, and said Labour had shown “demonstrable incompetence” in dealing with members accused of Jew-hatred.
In its 70-page report, the committee said Labour’s failure gave credence to the suggestion that the party was “institutionally antisemitic”.
The committee also said Mr Corbyn’s “lack of consistent leadership has created what some have referred to as a ‘safe space’ for those with vile attitudes towards Jewish people”.
Mr Corbyn responded by criticising the committee for a “disproportionate emphasis on Labour”, despite the fact that they had heard evidence that 75 per cent of antisemitic incidents come from far-right sources. He noted that the report stated there was no reliable evidence to suggest antisemitism was greater in Labour than other parties.
“As the report rightly acknowledges, politicising antisemitism — or using it as a weapon in controversies between and within political parties — does the struggle against it a disservice,” he said.
In turn, Labour MPs attacked Mr Corbyn’s response at a party meeting on Monday. Wes Streeting, MP for Ilford North, said his leader had “poured petrol” on the situation, and launched a renewed call for clarity over the peer- age given to Baroness Chakrabarti after she conducted Labour’s own investigation into antisemitism allegations
Chuka Umunna, Labour’s former Shadow Business Secretary, who sat on the committee, said it was “grossly insulting” of Mr Corbyn to suggest MPs had compiled the report “to score political points”.
Mr Corbyn had harsh word for the committee over its conclusions on Baroness Chakrabarti, who has been made Shadow Attorney General. The MPs found her report was “ultimately compromised” by her failure to provide a definition of antisemitism, while her promotion to the Shadow Cabinet “threw into question” the independence of her “clearly lacking” probe.
Mr Corbyn said the criticism was unfair. “This fails to acknowledge public statements that the offer to appoint Chakrabarti to the House of Lords came after completion of her report, and was based on her extensive legal and campaigning experience,” he said.
He accused the committee of taking evidence from “too narrow a pool of opinion” and criticised its failure to hear evidence from any women.
Tim Loughton MP, acting committee chairman, said: “I would have hoped that Jeremy Corbyn would have been rather more positive and welcomed this report.” He said the Labour leader “still seems to be in denial about the nature and the extent of the problem he’s got within his own party.”
The report also singled out Malia Bouattia, president of the National Union of Students, for “failing to take sufficiently seriously the issue of antisemitism on university campuses”. Her reference to Birmingham University as a “Zionist outpost” was “unacceptable” and “smacks of outright racism”.
The report urged all political leaders to do more to tackle “pernicious” antisemitism. It advised Labour to instigate “sweeping reforms” of the party’s disciplinary procedures. Baroness Chakrabarti’s proposed statute of limitations o n i nv e s t i g a t - ing members a c c u s e d o f antisemitism s h o u l d b e abandoned, the report concluded.
The cross-party group — including three Labour MPs — sug- Committee chair Tim Loughton gested reforms should be applied by parties for training and disciplining members and activists.
There was particular concern over the “volume and viciousness of antisemitism online”. MPs and peers had been targeted “countless” times. The case of Labour MP Luciana Berger was cited as an alarming example.
The Liberal Democrats should act more swiftly to deal with antisemitism, the committee found, and members noted the re-emergence of David Ward— a former Lib Dem MP who was previously disciplined by the party over comments about Israel — as a Lib Dem councillor, describing it as “a surprise”.
An “amended definition of antisemitism” should be adopted by government and political parties to promote a “zero-tolerance approach while allowing free speech on Israel and Palestine to continue”, the report said. It suggested the Macpherson definition — which essentially says an incident should be seen as antisemitic if an alleged victim believes it to be — as “a good working definition”.
The committee noted that criticism of the Israeli government and state are acceptable and not antisemitic. But it found that the terms “Zionist” and “Zio” were persistently used abusively and in an accusatory context, and have “no place in a civilised society”. The term “Zionism” had been “tarnished by its repeated use in antisemitic and aggressive contexts”.
Social media site Twitter had become an “inert host for vast swathes of antisemitic hate speech and abuse”, a situation the committee described as “deplorable”.
MPs said the multi-billion dollar site should put more resources towards identifying abusive users.
The report said Britain r e mai n e d “o n e o f t h e l e a s t antisemitic countries in E u r o p e ” b u t t h a t s u r v e y s , which show one in 20 adults could be