McDonnell in radio admission
JOHN MCDONNELL rebuked a Labour supporter who phoned in to a radio show to tell him reports of antisemitism in the party were “smears”, saying he has “seen the evidence” of Jew-hate.
Appearing on LBC on Tuesday evening, the shadow chancellor fielded a call from Oliver, who called for the leadership to “confront this smear campaign on antisemitism”.
Mr McDonnell responded by insisting he had “seen the stuff on social media, in particular”, adding that “some of it is horrendous… we have to face up to it”.
He said: “It isn’t a smear campaign, Oliver. It isn’t. I’ve seen the evidence. I’ve seen the threats that have been made against some of our Jewish members and MPs. We’ve got to stamp it out.”
Speaking specifically about the abuse suffered by Luciana Berger, he added: “You look at some of the stuff she’s had to endure in the last couple of years and it’s been horrendous.
“Luciana has a justifiable complaint and we’re dealing with it.”
The Jewish Labour Movement (JLM) welcomed Mr McDonnell’s statement, Rebuke: shadow chancellor
saying: “It is about time that John McDonnell finally and robustly recognised that our Parliamentary Chair Luciana Berger has faced near constant racially motivated harassment for just being a Jewish Labour MP”.
JLM also said it hoped Mr McDonnell would repeat the LBC statement to the Labour Representation Committee (LRC), led by the shadow chancellor, which has said that claims of antisemitism were “ruling class propaganda”.