MP: ‘Have we learnt nothing?’
LABOUR MP Siobhain McDonagh has said she is making “no apologies” for challenging a speaker at a Labour Irish Society St Patrick’s Day event who appeared to suggest that allegations of antisemitism in Jeremy Corbyn’s party were “false”.
The MP for Mitcham and Morden was at the event in Westminster on Monday when a speaker made the accusation that fight against the Conservative Government was being harmed by false arguments within Labour over the longrunning issue of antisemitism.
Ms McDonagh told the
JC she initially had no intention of repeating her objection until she received a tweet calling her behaviour towards the GMB union speaker “inappropriate”, with a further suggestion that
“this sort of intimidating behaviour has to be rooted out of our party.” Responding to the tweet, Ms McDonagh wrote: “I make no apologies for standing up to those who try to deny the problems of antisemitism in UK Labour. If I see it I will call it out.
“Have we learnt nothing from Luciana Berger? Surely there is no one left on the planet who doesn’t think we have a problem?”
The MP, who has been a consistent critic of Mr Corbyn’s failure to eradicate the issue, later told the JC: “There was a number of speakers, it was a very packed room.
“A woman got up to speak and she said we had to ‘unite to fight the Tories and not make allegations which may be false amongst one another.’
“I took that to mean, in the climate, issues of antisemitism. A number of my friends who I was with thought the same thing. We all just said ‘What?’. “It’s easier not to say anything — but we are past the point where we can just be embarrassed.”